AUGUST 23-29

MARYLAND

The 2015 Baltimore Art, Antique & Jewelry Show.

Baltimore Art, Antique & Jewelry Show/Baltimore Fine Craft Show, Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, MD
August 25-28, 2016
This year’s Baltimore Art, Antique & Jewelry Show will feature an exciting new fine craft component. The Baltimore Fine Craft Show, collocated with the Baltimore Art, Antique & Jewelry Show, will feature spectacular, one-of-a-kind objects, including jewelry, ceramics, and sculpture, from a juried exhibition of artists. Now in its thirty-sixth year, the Baltimore Art, Antique & Jewelry Show will continue to present an exquisite selection of furniture, fine art, Americana, dazzling antique and estate jewelry, and more, from over 400 leading dealers. Among this year’s exhibitors are Spencer Marks, Jacob’s Diamond & Estate Jewelry, Camilla Dietz Bergeron, Rehs Galleries, Benchmark of Palm Beach, and Drucker Antiques. Click here to continue reading.

TEXAS

Installation view of As Essential as Dreams at the Menil Collection. Photography by Paul Hester.

As Essential as Dreams: Self-Taught Art from the Collection of Stephanie and John Smither, Menil Collection, Houston, TX
On view through October 16, 2016
As Essential as Dreams showcases works from a monumental promised gift of Outsider Art to the Menil Collection. The bequest, which includes fifty works by such luminaries as Thornton Dial, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Solange Knopf, and Martín Ramírez, comes from the late, Houston-based arts patron and collector, Stephanie Smither, and her husband, John, who died in 2002. The couple began collecting in the early 1980s and developed deep friendships with many of the visionary and self-taught artists they championed. The result is a highly personal collection that includes works by some of the world’s most important Outsider artists. The exhibition title is a reference to a quote by the French theorist, Jean Baudrillard, who believed that the desire to create and collect art is a deeply human response “as essential as dreams.” Click here to continue reading.

NEW YORK

Donald Judd, Untitled, 1974. Anodized aluminum and brass, 5 1/8 x 75 x 5 inches.

 Aspects of Minimalism, Guild Hall, East Hampton, NY
On view through October 10, 2016
In the early 1960s, a group of artists rebelled against the critical and public popularity of Abstract Expressionism, upending a movement that had reigned supreme for over a decade. Governed by the notion that art needn’t be expressive or highly personal, these pioneers, who came to be known as Minimalists, favored pared-down, geometric forms and simple materials. Aspects of Minimalism highlights the importance and range of Minimalism as well as its lasting influence. The exhibition presents works—many of which have never been publically displayed—by Minimalism’s leading figures, including Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, and Agnes Martin. Works by artists who have been inspired by the Minimalist aesthetic, such as Josef Albers, Gerhard Richter, and Bridget Riley, are also be on view. Click here to continue reading.

FLORIDA

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Famous, 1982. Acrylic, xerox collage on canvas mounted on wood, 71 5/8 x 35 1/2 x 20 13/16 inches (181.9 x 90.2 x 52.8 cm). Private Collection, Courtesy of Lio Malca Lender No.: AFP 3127-153.

Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks, Perez Art Museum, Miami, FL
On view through October 16, 2016
Organized by the Brooklyn Museum in New York, Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks presents eight rarely seen notebooks created by Jean-Michel Basquiat between 1980 and 1987. The volumes, which feature 160 pages of poetry, wordplay, sketches, and personal observations, have never been publicly exhibited. The exhibition also includes thirty paintings, drawings, and mixed-media works culled from private collections and the artist’s estate. Basquiat, who rose to fame in the 1980s, is best known for his graffiti-tinged Neo-expressionist and Primitivist works. Drawing inspiration from the street culture of his native New York, Basquiat explored serious topics, including politics, racism, and social hypocrisy, in his work. Click here to continue reading.

MASSACHUSETTS

Madonna and Child with Cherubim, about 1485, Andrea della Robbia, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
On view through December 4, 2016
Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence features examples of the stunning, colorful glazed terracotta sculpture of Luca della Robbia, his family, and associated workshops. Inventor of the shimmering glazing technique that has retained its brilliance for 500 years, Della Robbia's work is stunningly shown in forty-six sculptures, six of which have never before been seen in America. Examples made for private, public, and religious patrons are exhibited in themed areas throughout the show, and labels relay discoveries made through conservation and research. The exhibition will travel to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it will be on view from February 5-June 4, 2017. Click here to continue reading.

Cornelia Parker, Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson), 1999. Charcoal, wire, pins, and nails, 144 × 60 × 72 inches (365.8 × 152.4 × 182.9 cm). Gift of Barbara Lee, The Barbara Lee Collection of Art by Women. Charles Mayer Photography ©2016 Cornelia Parker.

First Light: A Decade of Collecting at the ICA, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
On view through January 16, 2017
Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art has mounted an exhibition celebrating its first decade of collecting. Founded in 1936, the institution did not begin building a permanent collection until it moved to its iconic, Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed building in 2006. Drawn entirely from the museum’s holdings, First Light brings together new acquisitions and long-standing favorites from the collection in a series of interrelated and stand-alone exhibitions. Among the show’s myriad highlights are a cut-paper silhouette by Kara Walker and photographs by Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol. Click here to continue reading.

MISSOURI

Max Beckmann (German, 1884–1950), plate 4: Martyrdom, 1919. Lithograph, sheet: 23 1/4 x 33 3/4 inches. Saint Louis Art Museum, Neumann/Frumkin Collection, purchased with funds provided by the bequest of Morton D. May, by exchange, the bequest of Florene M. Schoenborn in honor of her father, David May, by exchange, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Museum Shop Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Lester A. Crancer Jr., Phoebe and Mark Weil, The Sidney S. and Sadie Cohen Print Purchase Fund, Mr. and Mrs. David C. Farrell, the Julian and Hope Edison Print Fund, gift of George Rickey, by exchange, bequest of Helen K. Baer, by exchange, Suzanne and Jerry Sincoff, Museum Shop Fund, by exchange, gift of the Buchholz Gallery, by exchange, Museum Purchase, by exchange, Jerome F. and Judith Weiss Levy, bequest of Horace M. Swope, by exchange, and funds given by Fielding Lewis Holmes through the 1988 Art Enrichment Fund, by exchange 404:2002 © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

Impressions of War, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
On view through February 12, 2017
Francisco de Goya’s seminal Disasters of War—a series of eighty-two prints created between 1810 and 1820 in response to the French occupation of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte—anchors this poignant exhibition. The macabre images focus on the cruelties of war as well as the bravery of the Spanish people as they faced foreign occupation. In addition to Goya’s works, the exhibition presents three additional series of prints by artists who grappled with war and its aftermath, including Jacques Callot’s Miseries of War from the 1630s, Max Beckmann’s 1919 portfolio Hell, and Daniel Heyman’s Amman Portfolio from 2006. Click here to continue reading.

ILLINOIS

Grant Wood, January, 1938. The Art Institute of Chicago, Regenstein Acquisition Fund and Regenstein Foundation.

Master Drawings Unveiled: 25 Years of Major Acquisitions, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
August 27, 2016-January 29, 2017
This exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago presents master drawings that have been acquired in the last twenty-five years, but have never been publically displayed. Arranged chronologically, Master Drawings includes everything from French Neoclassical drawings to midcentury Realist works. Among the highlights are an early seascape by Edgar Degas, a large preparatory drawing for the beloved Art Institute painting Paris Street; Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte, and a monumental pastel by Grant Wood. The Art Institute of Chicago received its first major gift of drawings—almost 4,000 European and American works—in 1922. It has gone on to amass one of the finest master drawings collections in the country. Click here to continue reading.