This Week’s Major Events: Must-See Photography Exhibitions, the New Orleans Antiques Forum, Post-War Art in Seattle & LA & More
AUGUST 2-8
MASSACHUSETTS
Nantucket by Design, Various Locations, Nantucket, MA
August 2-7, 2016
This event, which will take place at various locations throughout Nantucket, builds on the thirty-eight year history of the Nantucket Historical Society’s annual antiques show, which significantly expanded its design focus in recent years. Nantucket by Design will delve even deeper into the world of design via a jam-packed program that includes lectures, panels, vignettes, and much more. Participating designers include Ike Kligerman Barkley, who will host the Designer Luncheon, as well as Juan Montoya,Charles Pavarini III, James Huniford, Suzanne Rheinstein, and Nancy Braithwaite. Click here to continue reading.
LOUISIANA
2016 New Orleans Antiques Forum—Dinner Is Served: Decorative Arts and Dining in the South, New Orleans, LA
August 4-7, 2016
The annual New Orleans Antiques Forum, which is presented by The Historic New Orleans Collection, is one of the most anticipated and well-regarded antiques events of the year. The 2016 forum will explore the southern dining room—a space that reflects how tradition, culture, style, and the ritual of dining, have evolved over the centuries. Lecturers at this year’s forum include antiques dealer Sumpter Priddy, who will discuss how southern sideboards have changed over time, and Leslie B. Grigsby, Winterthur’s Senior Curator of Ceramics and Glass, whose presentation, Uncorked!, will explore wine, objects, and related traditions. Click here to continue reading.
WYOMING
Norman Rockwell: The Artist at Work, Heather James Fine Art, Jackson Hole, WY
On view through September 30, 2016
This fascinating exhibition at Heather James Fine Art’s Jackson Hole gallery explores the creative process of Norman Rockwell—one of the country’s best known and most recognizable artists. Rockwell, who created over 300 covers for the Saturday Evening Post during his prolific career, often used his neighbors, friends, and acquaintances as models. The Artist at Work brings together the preparatory sketches, studies, and paintings that helped lead the way to Rockwell’s finished product. In addition to providing a glimpse into Rockwell’s working process, the exhibition offers unprecedented insight into the community in which he worked. Click here to continue reading.
VIRGINIA
Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
On view through October 30, 2016
In 1950, a Life magazine shoot brought Gordon Parks—one of the most celebrated African American photographers of all time—to his hometown of Fort Scott, Kansas. Parks, who had left the area some twenty years earlier, decided to take the assignment as an opportunity to reconnect with his childhood friends. Parks traveled to Kansas City and Chicago—among other cities—to record their lives there. The works on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts are part of this moving series, which captures the lives of African American citizens years before the Civil Rights movement. The project was slated to appear in Life in April 1951, but it was never published. Click here to continue reading.
PENNSYLVANIA
Strength in Numbers: Photography in Groups, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
On view through February 6, 2017
Visitors to the Carnegie Museum of Art have a rare chance to see photographs from the collections of all four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh—the Andy Warhol Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and the Carnegie Science Center. Strength in Numbers feature nearly 100 works dating from the late 1800s to the present and explores how photographs come together to create a stronger narrative than a single image and give us a better understanding of the world around us. The exhibition is divided into three sections—People, Place, Perspective—and includes works by Eugène Atget, Mike Kelly, and Andy Warhol. Click here to continue reading.
WASHINGTON
Big Picture: Art After 1945, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Ongoing
This ongoing exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum opened on July 23 and focuses on several of the monumental artistic developments that took place after World War II. Beginning with the growing influence of abstraction, Big Picture explores everything from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting and Minimalism through some of modern art’s most iconic figures, including Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Agnes Martin, and Eva Hesse. The exhibition will feature many works from a transformative gift made by Seattle collectors Virginia and Bagley Wright as well as several key loans from local collections. Click here to continue reading.
CALIFORNIA
The Art of Our Time, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
On view through September 30, 2016
This exhibition, which was installed by the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Chief Curator, Helen Molesworth, groups together works by artists who were friends, were members of the same art schools, and/or voiced an admiration for one another’s work. Culled from the institution’s post-war collection, The Art of Our Time, which breaks away from the conventional chronological installation of art, presents the Museum of Contemporary Art’s illustrious collection in a new light, championing its richness and depth. The exhibition also features a number of recently acquired works, which highlight the institution’s ongoing commitment to collecting. Click here to continue reading.
LONDON
William Eggleston Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London
On view through October 23, 2016
The influential photographer, William Eggleston, is best known for popularizing the use of color photography as well as his evocative and instantly recognizable compositions. This exhibition, which features 100 works spanning Eggleston’s entire career from the 1960s to today, is the most comprehensive display of his portrait photography ever mounted. The show includes some of Eggleston’s most iconic images as well as a selection of never-before-seen black-and-white prints from the 1960s. Click here to continue reading.