Men of Menil: Sumo

On Thursday evening, March 8, 2012, Men of Menil−the black-tie event for gentlemen whose contributions provide funds for the Menil Collection’s general operations and education and outreach programs−will feature a rare import from Japan: a demonstration of the sport and ritual of sumo wrestling.

Guests will observe sumo master rikishi (wrestlers) in a tournament performance, which will be presided over by a gyōji (referee), who will also officiate related ceremonies and rituals. This presentation of Japan’s kokugi (national treasure) will be only the fourth time in the past twenty years that professional Japanese rikishi have performed sumo live in the United States.

Each year Men of Menil presents a unique form of entertainment. For the inaugural gala in 2010, professional billiards players demonstrated their astounding skills, and sleight-of-hand artists conjured all manner of magic and marvels last year. This March, guests will be privileged to witness an evening of sumo, a rarefied and splendid melding of athleticism and cultural heritage. Four sumo wrestlers, dressed in traditional robes, will mingle with guests before dinner. Among them will be Waka (Keisuke Kamikawa), Noro (Takuji Noro), and Yama (Ryuichi Yamamoto)−all traveling to Houston from Japan−as well as Byamba (Byambajav Ulambayar, a former world champion who has appeared in more than twenty television shows and three films, including Ocean’s 13).

After dinner, the wrestlers will then enter a dohyō, or ring, assembled in the middle of the hall for the bouts, creating a spectacle like none ever before seen in Houston. One would have to travel to Japan to witness a sumo performance of this caliber, featuring athletes at their elite level. A fusion of art and athleticism, sumo traces its history to the seventeenth century, when it was devised as an entertainment or offering for the pleasure of Shinto gods to ensure bountiful harvests.

Men of Menil takes place in an extraordinary setting, inside the museum’s Richmond Hall annex, which houses a remarkable light installation by the renowned Minimalist artist Dan Flavin. Lead sponsor Gulf States Toyota and a group of distinguished guests have already helped raise more than $400,000 to date in advance of the event. Please join us for an unforgettable evening of superb cuisine catered by Jackson and Company, libations, and fine cigars, and witness this stunning exhibition of the art of sumo.

The Menil Collection opened in 1987 and is widely considered one of the most important privately assembled collections of the twentieth century. The museum’s holdings, ranging from the prehistoric to art of the present day, are housed in a modern landmark designed by the renowned architect Renzo Piano. In the quarter-century since it opened to the public, the Menil has established an international reputation for presenting acclaimed exhibitions and producing many scholarly publications; pioneering partnerships with other cultural and educational institutions across Houston, Texas, and the U.S.; and conducting groundbreaking research in the conservation of modern and contemporary art. The Menil charges no admission fees.

Sumo (相撲, sumō) is a competitive full-contact sport where a wrestler (rikishi) attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring (dohyō) or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally.

Many ancient traditions have been preserved in sumo, and even today the sport includes many ritual elements, such as the use of salt purification, from the days when sumo was an important aspect of the Shinto religion. Even certain Shinto shrines carry out forms of ritual dance where a human is said to wrestle with a kami (a Shinto divine spirit).

Life as a rikishi is highly regimented, with rules laid down by the Sumo Association. Most sumo wrestlers are required to live in communal “sumo training stables,” known in Japanese as heya, where all aspects of their daily lives—from meals to their manner of dress—are dictated by strict tradition. Most elite wrestlers are highly trained athletes between 20 and 35 years old. There are no weight restrictions or classes in sumo, meaning that wrestlers can easily find themselves matched off against someone many times their size. As a result, weight gain is an essential part of sumo training.

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.

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is proud to announce the eighth Modern ’til Midnight on Saturday, April 14. An eclectic array of live music will be featured during the Modern’s extended, late-night hours. In addition, guests will have the opportunity to enjoy unique gallery activities, films, and exceptional cuisine from Café Modern.

Date: Saturday, April 14, 2012 from 6 p.m. to midnight
Admission: $15, free for Modern members

Tickets will be sold at the door. Contact the Modern for advanced ticket sales.

Live Music from Local and National Artists

The following lineup of musicians will perform outside against the Modern’s reflecting pond:

School of Seven Bells-Guitarist Benjamin Curtis and Alejandra Deheza bring a distinct and mysterious combination of futuristic beats and harmonious melodies known as psychedelic or indie pop. In concert, Curtis can often be seen manipulating various electronic devices in between guitar segments following Deheza’s angelic voice.

Air Review-The Dallas rock quintet’s dynamic shows have allowed them the opportunity to share stages with the likes of Portugal the Man, Bowling for Soup, Blue October, The Boxer Rebellion,and One Eskimo.

Calhoun-”The phrase ‘pure pop perfection’ is likely an overused crutch in the lexicon of music criticism. Also, it’s likely typically used for fare that usually finds itself residing on the Top 40 end of the dial. With all of that out of the way, allow us to proclaim that Calhoun’s newest album, Heavy Sugar, is indeed pure pop-rock perfection.”
-Kelly Dearmore, Best of Texas

The Angelus-Led by the enigmatic vocal powerhouse Emil Rapstine, whose brooding tones and mesmerizing stage presence bring to mind any number of iconic front men from Morrissey to Nick Cave, and backed by four young men who quietly summon up epic sounds that build like storm systems and burst into bone rattling sonic downpours, The Angelus often leave even the hardest hearted hipsters teary eyed and shaken.

Skeleton Coast-The Fort Worth pop rock quartet Skeleton Coast brings listeners a 1960s rock sound with a healthy dose of modern electronics. Influences include the Beach Boys, Modest Mouse, Pink Floyd, and Roy Orbison.

Happenings in the Galleries

The special exhibitions Glenn Ligon: AMERICA and FOCUS:Katie Paterson will be on view along with select works from the Modern’s permanent collection. Throughout the evening there will be special tours in the galleries. Admission includes access to galleries.

Glenn Ligon: AMERICA

Glenn Ligon: AMERICA is the first comprehensive, midcareer retrospective of Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), widely regarded as one of the most important and influential American artists to have emerged in the past two decades. Organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art and curator Scott Rothkopf, in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition surveys 25 years of Ligon’s work, from his student days until the present. The exhibition features roughly 100 works, including paintings, prints, photographs, drawings, and sculptural installations, as well as the artist’s recent, striking neon reliefs. The retrospective also debuts previously unexhibited early works, which shed light on Ligon’s artistic origins, and for the first time reconstitutes major series within his work, such as the seminal Door paintings that launched his career.

FOCUS: Katie Paterson

Katie Paterson is known for her multidisciplinary and conceptually driven work, with an emphasis on nature, ecology, geology, and cosmology. Many of her installations are the result of intensive research and collaboration with specialists as diverse as astronomers, nanotechnologists, and fireworks manufacturers. Recent works in her exhibition at the Modern include: All the Dead Stars (2009), a large map documenting the locations of the 27,000 dead stars known to humanity; and Light Bulb to Simulate Moonlight (2009), an incandescent bulb designed to transmit wavelength properties identical to those of moonlight.

Paterson received her BA in 2004 from Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland and her MFA in 2007 from the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She has since participated in exhibitions at Modern Art Oxford, England; the Power Plant, Toronto, Canada; and Haunch of Venison, London, England. Her work has also been featured in the Whitstable Biennial 2010, Whitstable, England; PERFORMA 09, New York, New York; and Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009, Tate Britain, London, England. She recently held the John Florent Stone fellowship at Edinburgh College of Art and was the Leverhulme Artist-in-Residence in the Astrophysics Group at the University College London for the 2010-2011 academic year. Paterson lives and works in London and Berlin.

Revisit the insightful lectures from the Tuesday Evenings series with the Modern Podcasts. Visit www.themodern.org or subscribe to our podcasts on iTunes or by using the RSS feed in your preferred program.

Tuesday Evenings Cocktails and Light Bites

Guests can enjoy refreshments from 5 to 7 p.m. in Café Modern before Tuesday Evenings lectures. Choose from Café Modern’s unique cocktail menu or distinctive wine list. Coffee, tea, and light snacks are also available.

Schedule

February 7

For this Tuesday Evenings presentation, artist Glenn Ligon is in conversation with curator Scott Rothkopf on the subject of Ligon’s midcareer retrospective Glenn Ligon: AMERICA. Ligon is one of the most important American artists working today, with work spanning painting, sculpture, photography, and film, and exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including the 1991 and 1993 Whitney Biennials; Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary Art and The American Century: Art and Culture 1900-2000, both at the Whitney; solo exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem; the Kunstverein München, Germany; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri; ICA in Philadelphia; and SFMOMA; as well as the 1997 Venice Biennale and Documenta II. Rothkopf is curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art and curator of Glenn Ligon: AMERICA. Prior to his position at the Whitney, Rothkopf was senior editor at Artforum. Through both positions, Rothkopf has come to know Ligon and his art well, having worked closely with the artist on this retrospective and as editor of Ligon’s book Yourself in the World: Selected Writings and Interviews. Given Ligon and Rothkopf’s relationship, as well as their obvious insight into the exhibition, this is a very special presentation that also serves as a preview for Glenn Ligon: AMERICA,which opens to the public on Sunday, February 12.

February 14

Andrew Campbell is an art historian and senior lecturer at Texas State University, where he teaches courses on contemporary art, feminism and visual representation, bad taste, film, and graphic novels. For Tuesday Evenings, Campbell presents one facet of his current project, Bound Together, an academic study of gay and lesbian leather communities in the 1970s. In this Valentine’s Day presentation entitled The Practice of Sex, the Work of History/ the Work of Sex, the Practice of History, Campbell–in an effort to engage in the ongoing project of writing contemporary art histories by making sense of a multitude of artists and their practice(s) as well as the expansion of historical LGBTQ visual cultures and communities that might otherwise be deemed too esoteric or stigmatized for study–presents four contemporary artists/collectives (Christian Holstad, Monica Majoli, Dean Sameshima, and A. K. Burns/A. L. Steiner) who refashion source documents from 1970s leather communities in order to comment on the politicized practices of LGBTQ love and sex in the twenty-first century.

*Audience members should note that to fully explore and present his subject, Campbell’s presentation includes mature language, themes, and subject matter.

February 21

Tim Rollins is an artist, activist, and teacher based in South Bronx, New York, who is known for what might be understood as “art activism,” and specifically his collaborative work with a group of at-risk students who call themselves Kids of Survival (K.O.S.). Beginning his career in 1980 as cofounder of Group Material–a collective of young New York artists pooling resources to launch exhibitions that address social themes–Rollins laid the ground work for what has become an art-world phenomenon known as Tim Rollins and K.O.S. Moving from traditional student/teacher interactions to a respected fine art collaborative practice, Tim Rollins and K.O.S. is represented by Lehman Maupin gallery in New York and shows internationally, with an exhibition history that includes two Whitney Biennials, the 1988 Venice Biennale, Carnegie International, as well as Documenta 8. After showing at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Basel, Switzerland, more than 20 years ago, Tim Rollins and K.O.S. present new works in a major survey exhibition in Basel entitled On Transfiguration, on view January 21 through April 15, 2012.”With Rollins’s guidance, these students are producing artwork of a remarkable sophistication, which refuses to conform to known categories but alternates between the literary and the visual, the modern and the naïve. Rollins’s teaching approach is at once classic and iconoclastic, for he uses significant works of literature as the basis for a visual statement. The result is a multilevel collaboration: among the students, between teacher and student, between the group and the authors whose books they choose.” Roberta Smith, New York Times.

This Tuesday Evenings presentation, Art and the Beloved Community, offers a special opportunity to hear from Rollins on the history, experiences, and initiatives of this extraordinary group.

February 28

Katie Paterson is a young British artist receiving a great deal of attention as a cross-medium, multidisciplinary, and conceptually driven artist who focuses on nature, ecology, geology, and cosmology in her work, using her skill and knowledge as an artist together with her limitless curiosity and tireless research to probe matters often left to science. Her devotion and hard work have been rewarded. Paterson recently held the 2010-2011 John Florent Stone Fellowship at Edinburgh College of Art and the 2010-2011 Leverhulme Artist in Residence in the Astrophysics Group at the University College London, as well as recently being named one of four “Best New Artists in Britain” by The Observer of London. In addition, in 2008 she was the recipient of the first annual Creative 30 Award. With work that literally explores the universe and presents its various phenomena, Paterson has been acknowledged and championed by fellow British artist Cornelia Parker in a 2010 article for The Guardian as, “original, engaging, and expansive. She makes us realize how inconsequential we are in relation to the universe.”Described in the same article as, “a romantic . . . with the patience, curiosity, and technical persistence of a scientist,” Paterson first came to public attention with a solo show at Modern Art Oxford in 2008, a year after graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She has since shown in group and solo exhibitions from London to Seoul, Korea to Venice, where in 2011 she presented the unique and fascinating project 100 Billion Suns during the Venice Biennale.

For Tuesday Evenings, Paterson shares her experiences and ideas as an artist, offering special insight into her work featured in the Modern’s FOCUS: Katie Paterson, as well as what to look forward to from her growing career.

March 6

Jill Magid, a New York-based artist and writer, seeks platforms for working inside and outside of institutions, responding to their imposition, negotiation, and at times, capitulation of power. For Magid, this power is not a remote condition to contest, but rather something to manipulate by drawing it closer, exploiting its loopholes, engaging it in dialogue, seducing its agents, revealing its sources, infiltrating its structure, and repeating its logic. As an artist and writer, Magid is fascinated by the topics of hidden information; being public as a condition for existence; and intimacy in relation to power. With solo exhibitions at institutions around the world, including Tate Modern, London; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Berkeley Museum of Art, California; Tate Liverpool; the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam; Yvon Lambert, Paris and New York; Gagosian Gallery, New York; the Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona; and at the Security and Intelligence Agency of the Netherlands, Magid has been recognized with awards such as the Basis Stipendium from Fonds Voor Beeldende Kunsten in the Netherlands and the Netherland-America Foundation Fulbright Fellowship. She is also the author of four books, including Becoming Tarden, which opens with, “The secret itself is much more beautiful than its revelation.” In accordance with Magid’s proclivity for intrigue, this book is as mysterious as the project it is associated with, which included the book being edited, censored, and its contents confiscated by the Dutch Secret Service, and a one-time-only exhibition of the novel at Tate Modern last fall.

For Tuesday Evenings, Magid presents Jill Magid: Embedded, a survey of the artist’s career with insights into her strange and thrilling experiences and endeavors as an artist, including her next project, Failed States,at Arthouse and AMOAin Austin, which is also the subject of Magid’s fourth and upcoming book by the same title.

For more information about Jill Magid, visit www.jillmagid.net.

March 13

Brooklyn-based artist Byron Kim is known for his monochrome paintings, born out of representation, that seemingly challenge their relationship to abstraction. Faye Hirsch describes his work in an interview with the artist for Art in America, “You see subtle variations of color within the fields. Recalling paintings by midcentury modernists like Rothko and Reinhardt, they feel like pure abstraction, but as always with Kim, have profound ties to the world.” Recognized in the early 1990s for Synecdoche, a grouping of hundreds of small monochrome paintings based on skin tones that was included in the 1993 Whitney Biennial, Kim collaborated that same year with friend and fellow artist Glenn Ligon on the painting Black and White, which exploits the notion of “flesh tone” as a color. Kim has since moved to meditations on the sky with his ongoing Sunday Paintings (a series begun in 2001). These small and stunning presentations of the daytime sky are immediately personal, with notations from mundane to profound, that mark the moment they represent written across their surfaces while at the same time thoughtfully reference the historical Today Series by On Kawara. Kim’s devotion to his paintings and their subjects has brought him critical acclaim; he has received numerous awards, including the Alpert Award in the Arts, UCROSS, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. His work has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad, including Korea, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada.

For Tuesday Evenings, Kim presents the ideas and experiences that have formed his work.

March 27

Andrea Fraser is an artist currently based in Los Angeles, California, where she is a professor at UCLA in the department of art. She also serves as visiting faculty for the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York. Fraser has used performance, video, and a range of other media to explore the motivations that drive artists, collectors, art dealers, corporate sponsors, museum trustees, and museum visitors from the pursuit of prestige to that of financial investment, to sexual fantasy and self-realization. Working since the mid-1980s, Fraser has built on the site-specific and research-based approaches that emerged with conceptualism, combining them with feminist investigations of subjectivity and desire. Her methods are rooted in the psychoanalytic principle that one can only engage structures and relationships through the immediacy of performance. In addition, Fraser also writes about her observations and experiences in art and life. Moved by a personal and immediate engagement with Fred Sandback’s work at Dia: Beacon in 2004, she wrote the essay, “Why does Fred Sandback’s Work Make Me Cry.”

For Tuesday Evenings, Fraser presents and discusses this moving essay that explores the psychological and emotional aspects of our relationship with art and museums.

April 3

Writer and artist Gregg Bordowitz presents Testing Some Beliefs, an ongoing series of lectures/performances that consider the strength and longevity, as well as the present relevancy, of some personal and collective beliefs. Currently the Chair of the film, video, new media, and animation department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and faculty at the Whitney Independent Study Program, Bordowitz is known for his work as an AIDS activist in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as his socially conscious, thoughtful, and poetic performance-based work. Throughout his career, he has been recognized with awards and grants, including the 2006 Frank Jewitt Mather Award for The AIDS Crisis Is Ridiculous and Other Writings 1986-2003, a Rockefeller Intercultural Arts Fellowship, and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. Of Testing Some Beliefs, Bordowitz writes, “I believe that art can change the world. I believe that art and freedom are necessarily related. There are no facts to support these claims. Still, I carry these beliefs formed decades ago. How do some beliefs remain and what do I gain by believing? At the risk of sounding ridiculous, I will try to explain.”

For more information on Gregg Bordowitz, visit www.greggbordowitz.com.

April 10

Gary Rough is a Scottish conceptual artist based in New York who represented his homeland in the 2003 Venice Biennale. As described in the press release for a recent solo show at numberthirtyfive gallery, New York, Rough “has cast himself as the antihero in his own dystopian novel.” Rough scrupulously labors to report upon the fragility, pathos, and beauty of the human condition, evoking the romantic, mundane, bleak, and intimate in paintings, sculpture, text, T-shirts, site-specific installations, and more with work that appears to be cobbled together in a deceptively hurried and craftless manner. It is no surprise that Rough was attracted to Kurt Vonnegut’s character Rabo Karabekian, the fictional and failed Abstract Expressionist painter whose paintings faded and disappeared from their canvases in Bluebeard due to a combination of stupidity and bad luck. After working with the author, in 2007, the year of Vonnegut’s death, Rough recreated and showed Karabekian’s “Sateen-Dura Luxe” paintings, at Fergus McCaffrey Fine Art, New York, based on Vonnegut’s descriptions of them in the book. This exercise, and the remarkable resulting paintings, brought Rough critical acclaim and an intriguing relationship with Vonnegut and his widow. Rough continues to explore the ordinary and often pathetic experiences and conditions of life on earth with tenderness and extraordinary astuteness. For Tuesday Evenings, he shares the insights and revelations of his career thus far.

April 17

Lucy Lippard is a distinguished writer, curator, editor, lecturer, and activist who has long been appreciated for her expansive scholarship and insight, having been one of the first to recognize the dematerialization of the work in art’s movement toward conceptualism as well as an early champion of feminist art. The author of 21 books, curator of 50 exhibitions, cofounder of Printed Matter Inc., the Heresies Collective, Political Art Documentation/Distribution, Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America, and other artists’ organizations, Lippard has received eight honorary doctorates in fine arts as well as numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Frank Jewett Mather Award for Criticism, two National Endowment for the Arts grants in criticism, the Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA) Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Bard College Award for Curatorial Excellence. Of Lippard’s book, The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society, Thomas Hine wrote for the New York Times Book Review, “Lippard overwhelms us with the breadth of her reading and the comprehensiveness with which she considers the things that define place. . . . In its final section, The Lure of the Local is revealed as a sort of art book after all. Its intent is to explore the many things that those who make art or who make judgments about art should think about when they consider art that seeks to be ‘contextual,’ ‘site-specific,’ or ‘place making’.” Lippard’s most recent book is Down Country: The Tano of the Galisteo Basin 1250-1782, for which she received the Caroline Bancroft History Prize from the Denver Public Library.

For Tuesday Evenings, Lippard presents Undermining, touching on photography, the new West, development, water, and land art, as she discusses pits and erections (gravel pits and skyscrapers), and more.

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)

Andy Warhol: Fame and Misfortune opens February 1 and runs through May 20, 2012. Admission fees are as follows:

• McNay Members – Free
• Children under 12 – Free
• Adults – $15
• Students (with I.D.) – $12
• Seniors (65+) – $12
• Active Military – $12

Museum admission includes access to the main collection galleries and to Andy Warhol: Fame and Misfortune.

Admission to the museum is free on H-E-B Thursday Nights (4-9 p.m.) and on AT&T First Sundays of the Month. During these special times admission to Andy Warhol is $7.

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 performance takes place Saturday, February 4 at 2 p.m. throughout the museum’s galleries, and begins with music on toy piano from the Austin Critics Table 2009 Best instrumentalist, Michelle Schumann. The event is open to the public and included with museum admission.

Continuing his research into cross-disciplinary collaboration and new contexts for live performances, musician Steven Parker, a doctoral student in the Butler School of Music and Donald D. Harrington Fellow at UT, was invited by The Blanton to draw on the museum’s resources in this, his third installation of the SoundSpace series. Program highlights include simultaneous musical performances by the New Music Co-op, Bel Cuore Sax Quartet, the East Side Arkestra (Sun Ra tribute combo) and the premier of works from composers Andy Sigler and Pierce Gradone, with an amplified cactus and electric trombone. The music will be paired with dancers from Ballet Austin, with choreography from Michelle Thompson.

Following the performance, visitors will have an opportunity to participate in a community jam session, bringing together the Musicircus performers and museum guests for a unique noise making experience.

The Blanton is excited to extend this opportunity for collaboration to one of the university’s most talented graduate students. This project exemplifies the museum’s commitment to nurturing meaningful collaborations that provide innovative experiences with art, inspire creativity, and support the educational mission of the university.

SoundSpace: Musicircus is organized by Steven Parker for The Blanton as part of his year long exploration of the museum and its resources.

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)