This season's special shows at area museums set out to bring the art world to our door.
By LENNIE BENNETT
Published August 28, 2003
Rosa Bonheur, Ploughing in Nivernais, 1850, oil on canvas, at the John and Mable Ringling Museum.
Jim Roche, After Five, 1981, mixed materials, at the Gulf Coast Museum of Art.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril, 1899, color brush and tusche and spatter lithograph at the Tampa Museum of Art.
Joan Fontcuberta, Orogenesis: Dali (Discovery), 2003, chromogenic print on aluminum, at the Salvador Dali Museum.
Herb Snitzer, Only in New York, gelatin silver print, at Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art.
Last season, it was the ancients at the Tampa Museum of Art. This season, the big art show will be shiny and new at St. Petersburg's Museum of Fine Arts.
Dale Chihuly, the most celebrated glass artist in the world, will create multiple, large-scale installations at the museum for an exhibition beginning in January that promises to be the blockbuster of the Tampa Bay area art season. It will run concurrently with another new Chihuly exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art, creating what both museums hope will be a "cultural highway" between the two.
The other big news also comes from St. Petersburg: the centennial of Salvador Dali. It will be celebrated at museums in Europe and here at the Salvador Dali Museum, which has the largest collection of art by the Spanish surrealist in the world. The museum's go-for-broke exhibition, one exploring Dali's relationship with mass culture, won't open here until October 2004, after making stops in Barcelona and Madrid. But in January, curators will bring out from storage the most comprehensive body of work ever shown from the permanent collection, including recent acquisitions.
Other museums plan plenty of visual enticements, too, including an important exhibition at Sarasota's John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art from the Wadsworth Atheneum.
Never mind the doom-and-gloom predictions of hard times in the museum world swirling around us. For area art lovers, these are good times.
JOHN AND MABLE RINGLING MUSEUM OF ART
5401 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota (941) 359-5700 "Rosa Bonheur to Marcel Duchamp: Highlights from the Ringling's Collection of 19th and Early 20th Century Art," Aug. 30-Oct. 5
With its magnificent collection of Baroque art filling most of the galleries, and traveling shows occupying its special exhibitions gallery, other selections from the permanent collection rarely get wall space. But this show welcomes home Bonheur's monumental Plowing in Nivernais, which has been on loan to other museums for several years, and revisits significant European and American works organized under the banner of realism and the shift to Dadaism.
"Margaret Bourke-White: The Photography of Design, 1927-1936," Oct. 25-Jan. 4, 2004
Organized by Stephen B. Phillips, curator of the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., this show features about 150 vintage examples of the photographer's work before she became a famous photojournalist for Life magazine.
"Renaissance to Rococo: Masterpieces from the Collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art," Jan. 31-April 25, 2004
When he brought his flamboyant style of scholarship to the Ringling in the 1950s, Chick Austin, the museum's first director and a former director of the Wadsworth, forged a relationship between the two institutions that continues today. The Wadsworth, located in Hartford, Conn., is sending about 60 paintings from its Italian, Spanish, Northern European and English collections spanning the early 16th to mid-19th centuries by masters such as Caravaggio, Zurbaran and Goya. Looking further ahead, "Surrealism and Modernism: 20th Century Masterpieces from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art," which opens in October 2004, should be a wonderful complement to the centennial show at St. Petersburg's Dali Museum.
"GraphicStudio at the Ringling," July 3-Oct. 3, 2004
Never before displayed comprehensively, the museum's collection spans more than a decade of output from this world-famous collaborative workshop at the University of South Florida, with mostly works on paper by leading contemporary artists.
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
255 Beach Drive NE, St. Petersburg (727) 896-2667 The annual summer show culled from the permanent collection will extend through Jan. 4, supplemented by photography exhibitions, as the museum marshals its energies for the arrival of Dale Chihuly in January. More big news: an exhibition of paintings by Claude Monet in 2005 to celebrate the museum's 40th anniversary.
"From Ansel Adams to Burk Uzzle: Photographers' Gifts to the Collection," Sept. 13-Jan. 4, 2004
The permanent collection long has received gifts from noted photographers, beginning with Adams, and this show acknowledges their contributions, including their correspondence with museum officials over the years.
"Sacred Space: Angkor Wat in 19th and 20th Century Photography," Oct. 18-Jan. 4, 2004
Few of us will ever have the chance to visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia, one of the greatest temples in the world. Robert Sanchez's collection of photographs taken by various amateurs and professionals won't get you there, but do convey the sense of mystery and reverence imbuing the site.
"African-American Works on Paper from the Wes and Missy Cochran Collection," Dec. 20-Feb. 15, 2004
Most of the great names are here, including Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden and Sam Gilliam.
"Chihuly Across Florida: Masterworks in Glass," Jan. 18-May 30, 2004
Grand installations throughout the museum, supplemented by "Hot Glass!" a demonstration hot shop at the Art Center, several block from the museum.
"Heavy Metals: Three Centuries of Silver and Goldwork from the Collection," Feb. 21-Aug. 8, 2004
Examples of the silversmith's craft - and sometimes art - from the 18th to the 20th century.
The internationally known Catalan artist has created a series of large-scale digital images by feeding elements of Dali's paintings into a computer that "redraws" them.
"Dali Centennial: The American Collection," Jan. 9-Aug. 31, 2004
In addition to the popular paintings on regular view, rarely exhibited works from the permanent collection will be displayed.
The two-year traveling exhibition makes its only Tampa Bay area stop, with fine crafts by artists throughout Florida marking the 50th birthday of Florida Craftsmen, a statewide organization.
"In the Moment: Photography of Herb Snitzer," Nov. 16-Jan. 11, 2004
A retrospective of this nationally known artist who lives locally, spanning a 50-year career that includes some of the most memorable portraits of jazz greats ever taken.
"29th Annual International Miniature Art Society Exhibition," Jan. 18-Feb. 8, 2004
Several hundred of the world's best practitioners of seeing the world in a grain of sand will be on display.
"The Art of John Dos Passos," Feb. 22-April 18, 2004
The American author was also a painter. The 66 watercolors in this show, organized by International Arts and Artists, document 50 years of painting and traveling.
"Transiti Italiani: Prints from the Mitchell Collection," June 13-July 25, 2004
An exhibition of prints created by Italian artists Marilu Eustacio, Oliviero Rainaldi and Cloti Ricciardi in collaboration with the now-closed Berghoff-Cowden Studio in Tampa.
GULF COAST MUSEUM OF ART
12211 Walsingham Road, Largo (727) 518-6833
"Florida Focus: Miami Hot!" Sept. 6-Nov. 9
The second in what is hoped to become an annual series of art by Florida-based artists, "Miami Hot" zeros in on the rich and diverse creative scene that flourishes in southwest Florida, curated by Denise Gerson, an associate director at the Lowe Museum of Art at the University of Miami.
"Jason Jensen: Materiality of Light," Sept. 6-Nov. 2
Jensen, a local architect, creates ephemeral light installations that explore our perceptions of space.
"Robert Giordano: New Work," Sept. 6-Jan. 4, 2004
The sculptor's steel and aluminum work will occupy the museum's sculpture garden.
"Jim Roche: A Sense of Place," Dec. 6-Jan. 25, 2004
A mini-retrospective for Roche, a longtime faculty member at Florida State University, who has been at the vanguard of new media art with credentials that include the Whitney Biennial in New York and the Biennale in Venice.
"Trevor Bell: The Florida Years," Feb. 21-April 18, 2004
Large-scale canvases and intense colors are Bell's hallmarks and this show presents work the British-born Bell created during his two decades in Florida.
"Tom McCarthy: The Art of Adornment," Feb. 21-April 18, 2004
McCarthy's wearable art in precious metals and stones, as well as concrete and wire, is on display in conjunction with the Society of North American Goldsmiths, who convene in St. Petersburg for their international conference.
"Fran Hardy: In a Brilliant Light," Feb. 21-April 18, 2004
Richly detailed, lushly colored paintings of the natural world in egg tempera and oil have the luminosity of the northern Renaissance.
"Jean Claude Rigaud: Defining Spaces," Feb. 21-Aug. 8, 2004
An installation of stainless steel sculpture in the museum's garden.
"Arline Erdrich: A Thirty-Year Retrospective," May 8-June 27, 2004
In her quest for spiritual enlightenment, Erdrich has ranged from abstract expressionism to totemic imagery and eastern philosophy, all of which find their way into her mixed media works.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM
4202 E Fowler Ave., Tampa (813) 974-2849
"Trespassing: Houses X Artists," Friday through Oct. 17
Dream houses, in the sense that these are designs by nine artists who worked with a California architectural firm for this show, which includes models, texts, digital media and conceptual sketches.
"Walkways," Nov. 17-Jan. 16, 2004
Walking is the theme for 19 artists working in all media for this show organized by Independent Curators International.
Jim Campbell, Nov. 17-Jan. 16, 2004
An engineer who has become a leading artist in interactive electronic installations, some on display here, Campbell also is creating a permanent work for USF's public art program.
TAMPA MUSEUM OF ART
600 N Ashley Drive, Tampa (813) 274-8130
"Toulouse-Lautrec: Master of the Moulin Rouge," Nov. 2-Jan. 11, 2004
Seventy-five original posters and lithographs, many portraying the demi-monde characters who became the artist's friends.
"Crosscurrents at Century's End: Selections from the Neuberger Berman Art Collection," Jan. 25-April 11, 2004
A selection of 50 works from this corporate collection includes photography and painting by contemporary artists.
"Tales from the Easel: American Paintings from Southern Museums," April 25-July 4, 2004 (tentative)
Representational painting from the mid-19th century to post-World War II with works by Andrew Wyeth, Childe Hassam, Thomas Hart Benton, Winslow Homer and others.
TAMPA GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS
746 S Village Circle in Old Hyde Park Village, Tampa, (813) 251-1800
"Doc Edgerton: Father of the Strobe," Sept. 13-Oct. 26
Work by this pioneer, whose technology made a splash of milk into a poetic coronet and turned action photography into a still moment.
"The American Southwest: Land of Hard-Won Dreams," Nov. 7-Jan. 11, 2004
Images by Bruce Dale, a former National Geographic photographer.
"Work by Barbara Kasten," Feb. 7-April 18, 2004
Constructions of found objects, architectural sites and ancient cultural artifacts all make their way into Kasten's color-filled work.
POLK MUSEUM OF ART
800 E Palmetto Ave., Lakeland (863) 688-7743
"Some Assembly Required: Collage Culture in Post-War America," Aug. 30-Nov. 2
The cubists started gluing bits of paper and found objects onto their canvases in the early 20th century and began a fascination with the "assembled" art of collage that continues today. This show of 45 works in various media includes Cindy Sherman, Romare Bearden, Joseph Cornell, John Baldessari and Robert Motherwell.
"Florida Visual Arts Fellowship Exhibition," Nov. 22-Jan. 25, 2004
Every year, a select group of artists benefit from a state grant; work by this year's recipients - possibly the last, given state funding issues - will be on display.
"Beaded Beauty: Art Objects from South Africa," Nov. 22-Jan. 25, 2004
Hats, capes, bags and vessels from a number of African cultures are among the items from the collection of William and Norma Roth, which was recently donated to the museum.
"Home Grown: Florida Artists from the Permanent Collection," Nov. 29-Jan. 18, 2004
Among the planned inclusions are Luisa Basnuevo, Susan Gott, Margaret Tolbert and Anna Tomczak.
