The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, the first fashion exhibition devoted to the French couturier, departs the Dallas Museum of Art after February 12, 2012. To offer visitors extra time to say “au revoir,” the DMA will extend the exhibition hours throughout the closing weekend. Friday, February 10, through Sunday, February 12, view the critically acclaimed international exhibition from 11 a.m. through 11 p.m.

Enjoy cocktails and dinner in the Atrium with Jean Paul Gaultier–inspired small plates from 5:00 until 10:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The DMA will present Jean Paul Gaultier on film beginning at 4:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday during the closing weekend. The films feature costumes designed by Jean Paul Gaultier or include interviews with the avant-garde designer. Stock up on Gaultier merchandise, including limited quantities of the exhibition catalogue and Jean Paul Gaultier by MIKLI eyewear, in the Exhibition Boutique and take The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier home.

Visit the exhibition during First Tuesday on Tuesday, February 7 for only $10 from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.! General admission to the DMA is free throughout the day with special activities for our youngest visitors and their families. That evening, experience a one-of-a-kind musical performance ranging from Gershwin to Gaga during Fashioned Forward at the Dallas Museum of Art. Arts & Letters Live is pleased to host Ryan Taylor, the Director of Artistic Administration at the Phoenix Opera, as he conducts six musicians in response to Jean Paul Gaultier’s creative vision during an evening of musical selections spanning numerous time periods.

Artful Musings: Fashioned Forward

Inspired by the exhibition The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

Tuesday, February 7; 7:30 p.m.

Horchow Auditorium

Using fashion icon Jean Paul Gaultier’s creative spirit as inspiration, six musicians respond to his collections in a one-of-a-kind, one-night-only performance with musical selections ranging from Mendelssohn and Madonna to Gershwin and Gaga. This marks the seventh collaboration with artistic programmer Ryan Taylor, who will create a multimedia extravaganza blending visuals of Gaultier’s work with musical and literary excerpts designed to resonate with the imagination of the celebrated French couturier, designer, and social provocateur.

Tickets: $37; reduced prices available for DMA members, students, and seniors. To purchase tickets online www.tickets.dallasmuseumofart.org/public or call 214-922-1818

6:00-7:30 p.m. Ticketholders have the opportunity to view the exhibition (included in admission to the performance) The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk.

Jean Paul Gaultier Film Showcase

Viewer discretion is advised due to adult content and language found in some of the films, which are specified below.

Horchow Auditorium

Free with general admission

Friday, February 10, 2012

Les Falbalas de Jean Paul Gaultier
Friday, February 10; 4:00 p.m.

Combining interviews with Jean Paul Gaultier, commentary by those close to him, and footage from family films, French filmmaker Tonie Marshall reveals the designer’s personal and professional world.

This film is not rated (59 minutes).

In French with English subtitles

The City of Lost Children
Friday, February 10; 6:00 p.m.

Costumed by Jean Paul Gaultier and set in a world where Cyclops, Strongmen, and other carnival characters navigate a treacherous society, one man is determined to save the children being kidnapped for their dreams by a scientist bound to steal them in hopes of living forever.

This film is rated R (112 minutes).

Truth or Dare
Friday, February 10; 9:00 p.m.

Jean Paul Gaultier was the fashion designer for Madonna’s 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour, and first-time filmmaker Alek Keshisian was allowed complete access, both on-stage and backstage, during the tour. The result is Truth or Dare, a fascinating look at one of contemporary music’s true phenomena.

This film is rated R (118 minutes).
Viewer discretion is advised due to brief nudity and strong language.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Jean Paul Gaultier: The Day Before
Saturday, February 11; 4:00 p.m.

Granting journalists access behind the scenes of the fashion world, The Day Before films the intensity, stress, anxiety, humor, and joy of the thirty-six hours before a major fashion show.

This film is not rated (52 minutes).

In French with English subtitles

The Fifth Element
Saturday, February 11; 6:00 p.m.

From the streets of New York to distant planets, the strange universe of the 23rd century is dependent on the discovery of the fifth element. Starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich with costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier.

This film is rated PG-13 (126 minutes).

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
Saturday, February 11; 9:00 p.m.

Peter Greenaway’s extravagance in cinematography is matched only by the costumes of Jean Paul Gaultier in this lavish film. Starring Oscar-winner Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon, and Tim Roth, this film tells the story of love and marriage gone terribly awry over dinner.

This film is rated NC-17 (124 minutes).
Viewer discretion is advised due to nudity, strong language, and adult situations.

IDs will be checked for entry to screening.

The goal of the exhibit is to provide a unique collection that will appeal to a wide audience. The bikes can be of any make or model. Being in perfect condition is not important; being unique is.

A short list of what has been offered:

• 1939 Harley knucklehead
• 1942 WLA Harley war bike
• a Russian ice racer with spiked wheels
• 1954 British Maxey
• 1959 650 Triumph
• 1975 750 Ducati
• a Shovelhead blown fuel drag racer
• a 1964 Harley panhead
• and others

If interested, remember that the bikes will be on loan to the museum for a six-month period. Old posters, parts, books, advertisements, clothing are also being sought. For information contact Jim Murphy at 915-351-3588.

The El Paso Museum of History exists for the educational benefit of the community and visitors. It promotes the understanding and significance of the rich multicultural and multinational history of the border region known as the Pass of the North.

Marilyn Crying Dyptic by Russell Young, 2011 (image courtesy the artist)

Russell Young Retrospective
Goss-Michael Foundation
March 7 through March 31, 2012

The Goss-Michael Foundation will premiere a retrospective exhibition by prominent British artist Russell Young. The exhibition will open to the public on March 7 and continue through March 31.

The Goss-Michael Foundation, a nonprofit organization, exists to educate, engage and inspire audiences by presenting exhibitions of British contemporary art, as well as provide vast resources, educational programs and scholarships to aspiring artists.

Earlier exhibitions have featured Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn, Nigel Cooke and Michael Craig-Martin.

It was 20 years ago that Russell Young first lent his eye to celebrity culture. That assignment was photographing Foundation co-founder and music icon George Michael for the sleeve of the album Faith, which won the 1989 Grammy Award for Album of the Year and sold over 25 million copies worldwide.

That job launched a career and soon Young was shooting musicians like Morrissey, Bjork, Springsteen, Dylan, REM, New Order, The Smiths, Diana Ross, Paul Newman and many other celebrities. The next natural step was directing music videos; Russell directed a hundred music videos during the height of MTV.

Ten years into his career, Young started painting, but his work remained private until 2003, when Young showed his first series, and first sold-out show of paintings, called Pig Portraits, about the glamour in the dark side of crime, fame, sex, drugs, rock and roll.  On the heels of the first series came Fame + Shame, a visual celebration of the inevitable fallout of resulting chaos that comes from the three decades of cultural excess.

Dirty Pretty Things is one of the first diamond dust prints he produced and reflects Young’s love for light after growing up under the leaden skies of Northern England. One of the most famous images is his Marilyn Monroe in Living Well is the Best Revenge.

In 2010, Young endured an eight-day coma, pneumonia and ARDS: all induced by the H1N1 flu virus. He emerged from his near-death experience with severe memory loss and an incredibly weak body. During his long recovery he began to examine his life and his surroundings in a whole new way. Young left the hospital and had to learn to breath, write, draw, think and walk for the second time in his life.

Young came again to paint. This time, freed from the domestication of the “picture world” as a feral boy, his art was filled with a new, rough energy of violence, sex and power. With the Helter Skelter series, Young learned to dance with this energy, crossing into the subconscious.

“My work is sort of a soundtrack to my life, loves, experiences and influences and my method of working is to search, destroy and create. The images of this series have been collected from newspaper cuttings, eBay, and long correspondence with police departments throughout the world or even given by celebrities themselves. The idea to create ‘anti-celebrity’ portraits was probably a reaction to my former career,” said Young. “However, they turned out to be even more beautiful and iconic. There is undeniably this attitude that is very real, in your face, a beauty that is hard to ignore. My art is a sort of soundtrack to my life, loves, experiences and influences. These would be my heroes that are missing from art history.”

In addition to the images that will be seen in this retrospective, Young is also exposing his studio to the world through a 24-hour live webcam broadcast over the coming months. This performance piece will be streamed from his studio in California and can be viewed at www.russellyoung.com/cam.

Russell Young has risen to become one of the most collected and sought after artists of our time. Celebrities and the most discriminating collectors like Abby Rosen, the Gettys, Elizabeth Taylor, David Hockney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, David Bowie and President Barack Obama have added Young’s works to their collections. His larger than life screen print images from history and popular culture are compelling, daunting, and undeniable.

Young is married to actress Finola Hughes and they have three young children: Dylan, Cash and Sadie.   He lives and works in New York and California.

The GMF is pleased to present this exhibition which will highlight Young’s most famous works including a number of pieces mentioned above.

The Goss-Michael Foundation

The Goss-Michael Foundation was founded by George Michael and Kenny Goss in June 2007. The Foundation offers the public a rotating schedule of exhibitions derived from Goss and Michael’s private collection of British contemporary art as well as other institutions. These exhibitions serve as a challenge to preconceived art notions and strive to set a new standard in artistic awareness by providing visitors with fresh and fascinating art experiences. Through these experiences, the Foundation hopes to generate new perspectives and conversations on the creative methods of contemporary artists. Locally, the Foundation is dedicated to contributing to Dallas’ thriving artistic community and enhancing the public’s familiarity and interaction with contemporary and emerging British artists. The Foundation fosters young artists in Dallas, and throughout Texas through numerous scholarships and art education programs.

The Goss-Michael Foundation hours are Tuesday-Friday 10:00am-6:00pm, Saturday 11:00am-4:00pm, Monday by appointment only. There is no charge to visit the Foundation.

Marilyn Crying Dyptic by Russell Young, 2011 (image courtesy the artist)

Chihuly at the Dallas Arboretum, May 5 through November 5, 2012

Renowned artist, Dale Chihuly, brings his dramatic sculptures and installations to the Dallas Arboretum May 5 – November 5, 2012. The award‐winning, 66‐acre garden will display Chihuly’s transformative contemporary glass sculptures and installations.

Chihuly’s monumental designs appeal to people of all ages and have been seen in more than 200 museums, gardens and other venues around the world. Presented by AT&T, and made possible by Bank of America, the Dallas Arboretum is proud to host Chihuly’s highly‐anticipated exhibition.

Inspired by nature, Chihuly’s spectacular installations will be specifically designed to respond to the vistas architecture and magnificent garden at the Arboretum. “AT&T is proud to support this world‐class exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum,” said Holly Reed, regional vice‐president, AT&T. “Chihuly at the Dallas Arboretum will provide a memorable educational and cultural experience not only for the children and aduls in North Texas, but visitors across the state and beyond.”

“Bank of America is dedicated to strengthening the surrounding communities we serve,” said Richard Holt, Dallas president, Bank of America. “We’re proud to partner with our fellow corporate citizen AT&T for this Chihuly exhibition at the Dallas Arboretum. This unique opportunity will not only bring a global cultural experience to the residents and visitors of Dallas but also provde significant economic impact that contributes to the local economy.”

Chihuly Nights, will be powered by Cirro Energy. The garden will feature illuminated sculptures and various dining options three nights a week. Extended garden hours until 10 p.m. will offer visitors many opportunities to see this exhibit. During the daytime, the Arboretum will offer educational materials, programs and classes for children and adults.

Supported by the Dallas Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and the Dallas Morning News, the Chihuly exhibit is expected to attract both local and out of town visitors during its six‐month run. American Airlines is the official air carrier of the 2012 Chihuly exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum.

The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden is located on the southeastern shore of White Rock Lake at 8525 Garland Road, Dallas, TX, 75218. The Arboretum is open daily from 9am until 5pm and 6 – 10 pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for Chihuly and concert nights. General daytime admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors 65 and older, $9 for children 3‐12, and free for Arboretum members and children two and under. On‐site parking is $10.

Evening admission for non‐members is $20 for adults, $15 for seniors 65 and older and $12 for children 3‐12 with reduced prices for members. There is no charge for parking during our evening events.

For more information and other events, call 214.515.6500 or visit the Arboretum’s website at www.dallasarboretum.org.

Annie Lee: A Texas Farewell at Laura Moore Fine Art Studios

Annie Lee: A Texas Farewell
Laura Moore Fine Art Studios
February 11 through March 7, 2012

Laura Moore Fine Art Studios is excited to announce the 3rd exhibition with world-renowned artist Annie Lee.  Lee will be in attendance on opening night, Saturday, February 11, 2012, from 7-10 p.m., with the exhibition Annie Lee: A Texas Farewell featuring over 18 of her new acrylic paintings. The art in the exhibition focuses on everyday details from years gone by and solitary figures on the walk of life.

Lee’s often humorous, satirical style of painting has been termed Black Americana. She names Will Smith, Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy as just a few of her notable collectors. Lee has been painting for over 60 years and with her first show in Chicago that sold out in 2 hours to single paintings selling for as much as $20,000, Lee is a true treasure in today’s art world. Lee has been living and painting in Texas for the last 6 years and now intends to return to Las Vegas where she once owned a 10,000 square foot art gallery.

“Mentor, art world navigator, savvy entrepreneur, advisor, humorist, neighbor and friend are just a few words that come to mind when I think of Annie,” Moore says. Moore states she has certainly enjoyed Lee’s time in North Texas and feels honored to know and to have painted alongside Lee.

The exhibition Annie Lee: A Texas Farewell is but a small outpouring of our well wishes towards Lee and her new endeavors. Come out on opening night and help give Lee a Texas sized sendoff. Annie Lee: A Texas Farewell opens on Saturday, February 11, 2012, from 7-10 p.m. at Laura Moore Fine Art Studios, 107 S Tennessee in historic downtown McKinney. The exhibition will be on display through March 7.

Gallery Hours are Monday through Saturday 1-5 p.m., 2nd Saturday 1-10 p.m., or by appointment. Free admission. 214.914.3630. www.lauramooreart.com

Crested Mynah on Oak Branch (detail) by Shokado Shojo and Hori Kyan, 1637 (photo by Paul Hester)

The new, permanent Arts of Japan Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, will open to the public on Sunday, February 19. The Japan gallery will be the final installation in a suite of permanent Arts of Asia galleries surrounding Cullinan Hall in the Caroline Wiess Law Building, culminating an effort begun in 2007 to expand the presentation of Asian art at the museum.

The Arts of Japan Gallery will open with a special inaugural exhibition, Elegant Perfection: Masterpieces of Courtly and Religious Art from the Tokyo National Museum, showcasing important objects from the collection of the Tokyo National Museum, including National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties that will stay in Houston for only eight weeks. In April 2012, the MFAH permanent collection of Japanese art will be installed with 16th-and 17th-century ceramics, 12th-century bronze Buddhist ritual objects and a 1000 B.C. sculpture on two-year long-term loan from the Tokyo National Museum. This will be the first time for the Tokyo National Museum to approve long term loans to an American museum.

“We are extremely grateful to the Tokyo National Museum for loaning their National Treasures and other important cultural properties for the opening of the new Arts of Japan Gallery,” said Christine Starkman, MFAH Curator of Ancient to Contemporary Asian Art. “The display of these stunning and rare works immeasurably enriches our ability to showcase traditional Japanese work. Our commitment to exhibit contemporary objects will continue as well, with phase two of the installation and the eventual commission of a major work from a contemporary Japanese artist, showcasing Japanese art through time.”

Overseen by Starkman, the new Arts of Japan Gallery space will reflect a singularly Japanese aesthetic of beauty and quiet elegance. Custom-designed Toshiba LED lighting will illuminate artworks displayed in vitrine cases designed by Glasbau Hahn (of Germany).

The inaugural exhibition, Elegant Perfection: Masterpieces of Courtly and Religious Art from the Tokyo National Museum (through April 6, 2012), showcases more than 25 objects from the prestigious Tokyo National Museum’s permanent collection. This exhibition will cover essential themes and traditions in Japanese art and culture, illuminating the relationship between the rise of Buddhism in Japan and the development of a highly refined court culture. Among the works on loan are a number of rare pieces designated National Treasures, Important Cultural Properties and Important Art Objects, including a rare 11th-century edition of the Manyoshu (one of the oldest existing collections of Japanese poetry, first compiled in approximately 759 AD); a sumptuous indigo paper scroll documenting the Chinese priest Xuan-Zhuang’s travels to India, referred to as the Daito Saiiki Ki; calligraphy by the 16th–17th-century Emperor Goyozei; and such masterworks of Japanese Buddhist art as an 11th-century Heian period seated sculpture of Dainichi Nyorai and a 14th-century painting depicting the Buddha’s departure from this world.

Seated Dainichi Nyorai, 11th century (photo courtesy Tokyo National Museum)

Beginning in April, some of the objects on loan from the Tokyo National Museum, including Neolithic objects, bronze Buddhist ritual implements, lacquer musical instruments and a wide array of fine ceramics, will be shown for two years alongside works in the MFAH Japanese art permanent collection. The Arts of Japan presentation will be consistent with the Arts of Asia gallery displays at the MFAH, showcasing ancient art objects alongside contemporary art objects, such as Japanese photographer Ishimoto Yasuhiro’s celebrated photographs of the sacred Shinto shrine complex at Ise. The shrine is torn down and rebuilt every 20 years on an adjacent plot, thus purifying and renewing the space, while preserving the original design from the 3rd- and 4th-centuries. This process embodies the Shinto belief that what lives and dies is always renewed and reborn.

Continuing the emphasis on Japanese art through the summer, MFAH will debut Unrivaled Splendors: The Kimiko and John Powers Collection of Japanese Art June 17-September 23, 2012 in the 22,000-square-foot Upper Brown Pavilion of the Law Building. Kimiko and John Powers have been collecting Japanese art since the 1960s and have built a prestigious collection of over 300 objects spanning over 12 centuries. The collection is particularly strong in Buddhist art and calligraphy and 17th- and 18th-century scholarly painting. Among the 83 objects that will be shown at the MFAH are large-scale masterworks.

Opening Events

The MFAH members’ opening will include a ribbon-cutting and performance by Akiko Yano, a composer, vocalist and pianist. Yano established herself at an early age and released her solo debut album, Japanese Girl, in 1976. Touring internationally and playing such venues as the North Sea Jazz Festival, Yano released her 27th album in 2008. Akiko, which was produced by Grammy-Award winning producer T Bone Burnett, includes collaborations with guitarist Marc Ribot and percussionist Jay Bellerose. Yano has also composed musical scores for films including Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbors the Yamadas.

Education and Public Programs

A video station inside the gallery will make an 8-minute film, Seasonal Ceramics used in the Japanese Tea Ceremony, available to help visitors explore the symbolism and meaning of the ceramic vessels from the National Tokyo museum. Also offered will be Gallery Talks in March, every Thursday at noon and every Saturday at 2 p.m., for 45 minutes or 20 minutes, free with museum admission. And throughout the run of the exhibition will be tours for adults and students; MFAH Book Club guided visits; and access to the Kinder Foundation Education Center. Public programming highlights are below:

• Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 2 p.m.: Opening Day Lecture/Demonstration: Buddhist Art and Courtly Elegance, presented by Mr. Shimatani Hiroyuki, Vice Executive Director of the Tokyo National Museum. A demonstration and reception follow the talk, free with general museum admission.
• MFAH Book Club selection, An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro, with guided visits available February 17–September 16, 2012. The MFAH Book Club links works of literature to art in the museum’s permanent collection and book clubs may reserve a Book Club Guided Visit through the museum’s website. Website visitors may also download accompanying discussion guides and use them to facilitate conversation in their book clubs.
• Thursday, March 14, 2012 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Spring Break Family Programs: Tea Bowl, Jar, and Dish: Exploring Japanese Art. Families may drop in at Creation Station to create an art-making project in the studio and/or spend time at Sketching in the Galleries, drawing works of art located in any of the Arts of Asia Galleries.
• Thursday, April 26, 2012: Homeschool Family Day: Arts of Asia. Families may visit Gallery Cart to learn more about the ideas and techniques of artists; participate in sketching in the galleries; and create their own works of art in the studio. A Book and a Look, a storybook checkout program, is also available. No pre-registration is required. Program activities are free and admission to the museum is free on Thursdays, courtesy of the Shell Oil Company Foundation.
• Tuesday, May 8, 2012: Homeschool Workshop: Arts of Japan. Designed for families who homeschool children ages 4 to 12, the program features an interactive gallery tour followed by a group discussion in the galleries, as well as an art-making activity. All participants receive materials that may be used to extend the lesson at home and pre-registration is required.
• Sundays, March 4 and 6, June 3, July 1, August 5, and September 2, 2012: Art Improv. Families choose a work of art anywhere in the museum, including the Arts of Japan Gallery, and make friends with it—sketching it, writing about it and talking about it together. Then, they can go to the studio and create a work of art inspired by their new “friend.” Sketching in the Galleries and A Book and a Look, a storybook checkout program, are also available on Art Improv Sundays.

Offered at a later date will be Art for the Mind and Spirit, a Community Outreach Medical Program; Picture Books: Summer Art Camp with Harris County Library and the MFAH; the MFAH Art Detectives Summer Program; Sunday Family Zone & Studio; MFAH Family Day; and Art + Studio. Check www.mfah.org for details to be posted.

Arts of Asia at the MFAH

The Arts of Japan gallery concludes a suite of five permanent Arts of Asia Galleries at the MFAH. Also open to the public and on permanent display are the Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Arts of China Gallery; the Nidhika and Pershant Mehta Arts of India Gallery; the Indonesian Gold Gallery; and the Arts of Korea Gallery. The five galleries surround Cullinan Hall on the first floor of the Caroline Wiess Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet Street, totaling about 12,000 square feet.
Funding

The Arts of Japan Gallery is made possible with generous support from Japan Business Association of Houston 2011* in memory of Mr. Seigo Arai; Nanako and Dale Tingleaf; Mitsui & Company (U.S.A.), Inc.; Penny and Paul Loyd; Mitsubishi Corporation; Miwa S. Sakashita and John R. Stroehlein; Sumitomo Corporation of America; GE Energy; Donna Fujimoto Cole; Kathy and Glen Gondo; Drs. Ellin and Robert Grossman; Gulf States Toyota, Inc.; Mitsubishi International Corporation- Houston Branch; Akemi and Yasuhiko Saitoh; Satake USA Inc.; Taeko and Nobuya Tomita; Toshiba International Corporation; and Nozomi and Ryuji Watanabe.

*Japan Business Association of Houston 2011 gift made possible in part by JX Group; Kaneka Texas Corporation; Kuraray America, Inc.; Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America, Inc.; NOLTEX LLC; and Toshiba International Corporation.

About the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Founded in 1900, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is among the ten largest art museums in the United States. Located in the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the MFAH comprises two gallery buildings, a sculpture garden, library, theater, two art schools, and two house museums.The encyclopedic collection of the MFAH has some 63,000 works and embraces the art of antiquity to the present.

Crested Mynah on Oak Branch (detail) by Shokado Shojo and Hori Kyan, 1637 (photo by Paul Hester)

Corazón de Mujer by Juan Torres-Zavala

The 18th Annual El Corazón Art Exhibition
Bath House Cultural Center
February 4 through March 3, 2012

The Bath House Cultural Center presents the 18th Annual El Corazón exhibition, a show that features diverse creations inspired by the heart (El Corazón), an important symbol in Mexican and Latin American art, and a significant theme in western culture. The exhibition will run from February 4 to March 3, 2012. An opening reception with the artists will be held on Saturday, February 4, 2012 from 7 to 9 p.m. Both the exhibition and the reception are free and open to the public.

When Jose Vargas, a visual artist and independent exhibition curator from Dallas, first saw a picture of a heart pierced by an arrow depicted with the number 27 and the words El Corazón on the playing card of the Mexican game, Loteria, he knew that his next project would be related to such a powerful and inspiring symbol. After seeking and finding artists who were also fascinated by the aesthetics and cultural and artistic relevance of the heart, Mr. Vargas curated and presented their artwork in the first El Corazón exhibition in 1993 with great success. The show soon became an annual tradition and an extremely popular event for the Bath House Cultural Center and for the vast number of regional artists who have participated in this passionate and delightfully eclectic art show throughout the years.

The artwork included in the 2012 El Corazón includes paintings, sculptures, photography, and mixed-media art.

The artists featured in the exhibition are:

ARTners Group, Kerian Babbitt-Massey, Awadh Baryoum, Carley Blackman, Angie Bolling, Eunice Bridges, Debbie Buie, Rebecca Collins, Liz Conrad, Ray-Mel Cornelius, Patricia Curry, Katrina Doran, Lori Dudley, Gina Marie Dunn, Brett Dyer, Jacque Forsher, Tyra Goodley, Cindy Gray, Rebecca Guy, Kimberly Harris, Hayden Harris, Anna Hernandez, Lizzett Herrera, Antoaneta Hillman, Suzan Kumar, Katrine Kyhnel, Joanna LaGrone-Headrick, Rachel E. Lord, Eli Lorenz, Roberta Masciarelli, Julia McLain, Julie Mortillaro, Teri Muse, Lauri Osburn Thomas, Becky Phillips, Evy Pitcher, Adam Ramirez, Marty Ray, Richard Ray, Alfredo Rodriguez, Lesley Rucker, Lowell Sargeant, Kate Schatz, Armando Sebastian, Heather Shoulders, Pam Stern, Linda Stokes, Diane Torres, Juan Torres-Zavala, Melissa Jane Wertz and David Zarazúa II.

About the Exhibition Curator

In addition to his duties as exhibition curator, Mr. Vargas is also an active visual artist. He has displayed his art photographs and paintings extensively in local and regional art venues. Mr. Vargas conceived the annualEl CorazonandVirgen de Guadalupeexhibitions, two popular exhibitions in Dallas, and has curated both shows for the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs with great acclaim since 1993.

Please visit www.bathhousecultural.comfor more information and to preview selected art pieces from the exhibition.

The Sacred Heart of Mary by Carley Blackman

Portrait of Carolus-Duran by John Singer Sargent, 1879

Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark
Amon Carter Museum of American Art
March 11 through June 17, 2012

On March 11, 2012, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents four masterworks by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), the preeminent expatriate painter of the late 19th century. In Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark, four renowned works from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute will travel to Texas for the first time. The exhibition is on view through June 17; admission is free.

Sargent’s legendary canvas Fumée d’Ambre Gris (Smoke of Ambergris) is among the four works in the exhibition. Created in 1880, this magnificent oil on canvas stands among the most remarkable of all the artist’s paintings, highly prized for its ambiguous narrative and exquisite color scheme of cream on white. The exhibition also includes Portrait of Carolus-Duran (1879), Sargent’s spirited portrait of his Parisian art instructor Carolus-Duran (1837–1917), as well two entrancing scenes from Sargent’s excursions to Italy, A Venetian Interior (1880–82) and A Street in Venice (1880–82).

“All four paintings display an informality and unconventional lack of finish, forecasting Sargent’s emergence as a modern painter,” says Rebecca Lawton, curator of paintings and sculpture at the Amon Carter. “Together, they also offer profound insight into the development of Sargent’s singular talent between 1879 and 1882, before he reached the age of 30.”

In 1910, Robert Sterling Clark—entrepreneur, soldier, explorer and an heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune—settled in Paris and began collecting works of art, an interest he inherited from his parents. When he married Francine Clary in 1919, she joined him in what became a shared, lifelong passion.

The Clarks’ collection grew exponentially over the ensuing years. Following World War II, they worked to establish a public museum to house their holdings, and in 1955 the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute opened in Williamstown, Mass. The Clarks possessed a discerning eye for collecting, and many of the works they accumulated are today iconic.

“It’s a true honor for us to exhibit these tremendous works amongst our collection,” says Andrew Walker, director. “Sargent was one of the most influential American artists living and working abroad in the 19^th century, and these four works are among his best, defining his ‘youthful genius.’ We encourage our visitors to take advantage of this unique opportunity to see these paintings; they are spectacular.”

Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark is presented at the museum as part of a joint program with the Kimbell Art Museum, which will concurrently show the exhibition The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Clark. Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark and The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Clark were organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass.

Free Public Programs

Thursday, March 29, 2012
6–7 p.m.
3 Under 30 Gallery Talk

Rebecca Lawton, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Get inspired as you learn about the great works created by Frederic Edwin Church, Arthur Dove and John Singer Sargent during their twenties. No reservations are required.

Sunday, April 22, 2012
1–4 p.m.
Young Masters Family Funday

Discover artists on display at the Amon Carter who created masterpieces at a young age, and then have your young artists create inspired artworks of their own! No reservations are required.

About the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

The Clark is one of the few major art museums that also serves as a leading international center for research and scholarship. The Clark presents public and education programs and organizes groundbreaking exhibitions that advance new scholarship, and its research and academic programs include an international fellowship program and conferences. Its 140-acre campus in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts includes Stone Hill Center, designed by Tadao Ando and opened in 2008, which houses galleries, meeting and classroom facilities, and the Williamstown Art Conservation Center. The Clark, together with Williams College, America’s foremost liberal arts college, sponsors one of the nation’s leading master’s programs in art history.

Portrait of Carolus-Duran by John Singer Sargent, 1879

the Lightning's Bride (detail) by Elliott Hundley, 2011 (photo by Joshua White)

Elliott Hundley: The Bacchae
Nasher Sculpture Center
January 28 through April 22, 2012

The Nasher Sculpture Center is pleased to present Elliott Hundley: The Bacchae, January 28 – April 22, 2012, featuring 11 recent medium- to large-scale wall-mounted and free-standing constructions highlighting Elliott Hundley’s investigations of the ancient Greek tragedy The Bacchae (ca. 406 BC) by Euripides.  Encompassing a variety of media including assemblage, theatrical staging, and photography, this exhibition continues the Nasher’s exploration of sculpture’s rich and myriad possibilities.

“Elliott Hundley has garnered accolades for his dazzling, densely-layered reliefs and free-standing sculptures that bring together in novel fashion an extraordinary array of materials” notes Nasher Sculpture Center director Jeremy Strick.  “His exhibition offers works that are at once remarkable technical achievements, and powerful meditations on topics both primal and contemporary.”

Hundley conceives of his imposing mixed-media collages—or bulletin boards, as he sometimes calls them—as theatrical landscapes that restage and animate classical texts. First orchestrating elaborate photo shoots using sitters who play characters from Greek mythology, he interweaves the resulting photos with a vast array of organic and found materials, from wood to textiles, bamboo to spray paint, and a variety of found ephemera. The works become dense narratives that take the form of monumental wall-mounted collages complemented by free-standing, obliquely figural sculptures. Drawing on classical mythology, art history, philosophy, and drama – subjects of long-standing interest to Hundley – he uses his idiosyncratic visual language to collapse historical and narrative time and to examine current social and political conditions.

The Bacchae is a tale of revenge set in the ancient city of Thebes. The god Dionysus (Bacchus to the Romans) has decided to punish its citizens when they refuse to accept his claim that he is the son of Zeus.  After bringing the women of Thebes under his influence, Dionysus leads them out of the city and into the wilderness where they join his followers, the Bacchae, in worshipping him in ecstatic rituals. The god then convinces the king of Thebes, Pentheus, to spy on the women, who, upon discovering him, mistake him for a wild beast. Led by Pentheus’s own mother, Agave, the women rip the king limb from limb, killing him in the process. Agave then returns to Thebes, carrying her son’s head as a trophy, still unaware of her delusion. When Dionysus’s influence on her finally loosens, she is horrified to discover that she has murdered her own son.

a foot against his ribs by Elliott Hundley, 2011 (photo by Joshua White)

Organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, Elliott Hundley: The Bacchae will be accompanied by an ambitious book with new essays by Wexner Chief Curator Christopher Bedford, poet Anne Carson, noted art historian Richard Meyer, and Doug Harvey, artist, writer, critic, curator, and educator, addressing subjects including Hundley’s development over the last decade, his engagement with filmic traditions, Greek tragedy as his most consistent inspiration, and the intricacies of his working process.  The catalogue will be lavishly illustrated with studio images, sketches, photographs, and process shots unpublished to date.

Elliott Hundley received his MFA in 2005 from UCLA and currently lives in Los Angeles. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in printmaking in 1997 and also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2002. His drawings and collages have been shown in group exhibitions in New York at Daniel Reich Gallery and Andrea Rosen Gallery, and in Los Angeles at Cherry and Martin, Regen Projects, and Peres Projects. His work is found in several important collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Elliott Hundley: The Bacchae was organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University and made possible by a significant contribution from Battelle. Generous support for this exhibition is also provided by The Broad Art Foundation and Lonti Ebers, New York.

Please note: In additional to the exterior sunscreen, fabric shades have been installed in the ceiling for this exhibition to protect the works of art from excessive light reflected into the galleries by Museum Tower.

swarming over by Elliott Hundley, 2011 (photo by Joshua White)

About the Nasher Sculpture Center

Open since October 2003, the Nasher Sculpture Center is dedicated to the display and study of modern and contemporary sculpture.  The Center is located on a 2.4-acre site in the heart of the Dallas Arts District.  Renzo Piano, a world-renowned architect and winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 1998, is the architect of the Center’s 55,000-square-foot building.  Piano worked in collaboration with landscape architect Peter Walker on the design of the two-acre sculpture garden.

The Nasher Sculpture Center was the longtime dream of the late Raymond and Patsy Nasher, who together formed one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary sculpture in the world. The Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection includes masterpieces by Calder, De Kooning, Di Suvero, Giacometti, Hepworth, Kelly, Matisse, Miró, Moore, Picasso, Rodin, and Serra, among others, and continues to grow and evolve.

The Nasher Sculpture Center presents rotating exhibitions of works from the Nasher Collection as well as special exhibitions drawn from other museums and private collections.  In addition to 10,000 square feet of indoor gallery space, the Center contains an auditorium, education and research facilities, a cafe, and a store.

The Nasher Sculpture Center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm and until 11 pm for special events.  General Admission to the Center is $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students, and free for members and children 12 and under.  For more information, visit www.NasherSculptureCenter.org.

the Lightning's Bride (detail) by Elliott Hundley, 2011 (photo by Joshua White)

On March 11, 2012, The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Clark opens at the Kimbell Art Museum, the only U.S. venue for this first-ever international touring exhibition of French Impressionist masterpieces from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The Clark’s superb collection of French Impressionist paintings, which features a remarkable group of works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, is renowned throughout the world. The Clark exhibition is touring for a period of three years (2011–14) and appears at major venues in Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and China.

“We are honored to showcase this extraordinary collection,” commented Eric M. Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum. “Because many of the Impressionists painted outdoors, their works will sing out especially vibrantly in the natural light of Louis Kahn’s renowned gallery spaces. Visitors to the Museum are in for a stunning encounter with beautiful art enhanced by iconic architecture.”

The Kimbell has a long tradition of hosting some of the most esteemed Impressionist collections from around the world, which began with its very first special exhibition, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paintings from the U.S.S.R (1973), drawn from the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, and continued with exhibitions of works from the Courtauld Institute, London (1987); the Barnes Foundation, Merion, Penn. (1994); the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris (2000–1); and the Art Institute of Chicago (2008).

The selection of 72 paintings in The Age of Impressionism includes 21 by Renoir, six by Claude Monet, seven by Camille Pissarro, four by Alfred Sisley, three by Edgar Degas, two by Edouard Manet, and two by Berthe Morisot. Many are celebrated masterpieces of Impressionism that visitors will recognize from reproductions even if they have never been to Williamstown to see them in person. The exhibition also features examples of the work of some leading French artists of the period who worked in alternative styles, including the landscape painters Camille Corot and Théodore Rousseau, figure painters William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Jacques-Joseph Tissot, and the post-Impressionist painters Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin.

“The Age of Impressionism offers our visitors a chance to understand more than 70 great works of art through the personality and taste of the two remarkable collectors who founded the Clark Art Institute,” said George T.M. Shackelford, Kimbell deputy director. “Sterling Clark was an heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune, who married in 1919 Francine Clary—a Frenchwoman who had been an actress at the Comédie Française. Together, they assembled for their homes in Paris and New York one of the finest collections of paintings, sculpture, and drawings formed in the early 20th century.”

Although the French Impressionists were the heart of the collection, the Clarks ranged widely in their tastes—paintings by the Old Masters found favor, as well as works by the modern Americans John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer. The couple founded the Clark Art Institute as a showcase for the collection in 1955. Although the Institute’s holdings have expanded greatly since then, notably through the addition of a growing collection of early photography, its scope and character continue to represent the interests of the founders.

The Age of Impressionism represents all the important types of painting that the Impressionists practiced, from landscapes to figure compositions and still lifes. Their near-magical mastery of effects of natural light comes through strongly in Monet’s springtime view of Tulip Fields at Sassenheim, near Leiden or Pissarro’s Piette’s House at Montfoucault, a winter scene. The Clark Renoirs are virtually an exhibition within the exhibition, representing the range of his subject matter and the evolution of his style from the 1870s to the 1890s. They include some of the most sensuous and seductive of all his works—such unabashed celebrations of youth and beauty as Girl with a Fan and Sleeping Girl. Among the other masterpieces of Impressionist figure painting in the exhibition is one of the most beautiful of Degas’s behind-the-scenes paintings of the ballet, Dancers in the Classroom, its off-centered composition reflecting the artist’s love of Japanese woodblock prints.

Grouped near the beginning of the exhibition, paintings such as Gérôme’s Fellah Women Drawing Water give a sense of the high level of technical “finish” practiced by older painters and beloved of more conservative taste during the Impressionist era. Again, it is to the credit of Sterling and Francine Clark that they were able to appreciate the work of artists other than their favorites of the Impressionist avant-garde. “Academic, yes, tight, yes,” Sterling Clark said of one of his paintings by Gérôme, “but what drawing and mastery of the art.”

The exhibition concludes by suggesting some of the stylistic paths that the Impressionists opened up for younger painters. Gauguin’s Young Christian Girl, for example, shows Impressionist technique and color deployed in a less purely descriptive, more personal and stylized manner.

The 240-page catalogue that accompanies The Age of Impressionism features essays by James A. Ganz and Richard R. Brettell. Ganz provides an introduction to the life and collecting of Sterling Clark, and Brettell discusses the Clarks in relation to other great American collectors of the early 20th century. The catalogue is published by Skira Rizzoli, New York.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Promotional support is provided by American Airlines, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and NBC 5.

Visitor information is available on the exhibition website, impressionism.kimbellart.org.

The Clark at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Visitors to The Age of Impressionism at the Kimbell will have the opportunity to view some of the highlights of the Clarks’ American collection next door at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. The Amon Carter is presenting John Singer Sargent’s celebrated painting Fumée d’Ambre Gris (Smoke of Ambergris), along with three other early Sargents, in the concurrent focus exhibition Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark.

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

The Clark is one of the few major art museums that also serves as a leading international center for research and scholarship. The Clark presents public and education programs and organizes groundbreaking exhibitions that advance new scholarship. It also offers an international fellowship program and presents colloquia, symposia, and conferences in the U.S. and abroad. Its 140-acre campus in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts includes Stone Hill Center, designed by Tadao Ando and opened in 2008, which houses galleries, meeting and classroom facilities, and the Williamstown Art Conservation Center. The Clark, together with Williams College, America’s foremost liberal arts college, sponsors one of the nation’s leading master’s programs in art history.

Kimbell Art Museum

The Kimbell Art Museum, owned and operated by the Kimbell Art Foundation, is internationally renowned for both its collections and for its architecture. The Kimbell’s collections range in period from antiquity to the 20th century and include European masterpieces by artists such as Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Poussin, Velázquez, Monet, Picasso, and Matisse; important collections of Egyptian and classical antiquities; and Asian, Mesoamerican, and African art.

The Museum’s building, designed by the American architect Louis I. Kahn, is widely regarded as one of the outstanding architectural achievements of the modern era. A second building, designed by world-renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, is scheduled to open in 2013 and will provide space for special exhibitions, allowing the Kahn building to showcase the permanent collection.