EDGAR DEGAS:
THE PRIVATE IMPRESSIONIST
WORKS ON PAPER BY THE ARTIST & HIS CIRCLE
Exhibition Opens at Naples Museum of Art,
FL, then to Portland Museum of Art, ME
Dates Available 2012-2014

The great French artist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) once said, “I would like to be illustrious and unknown.” To a large degree, his wish has been granted. By the time of Degas’ death, more than ninety years ago, his art had become famous; his reputation since then has only grown.

Naples Museum of Art, Naples, FL, October 2011

Yet the individual who was so accomplished in many artistic endeavors—from drawing, painting, and printmaking to sculpture and photography—has remained elusive. Unjustly labeled a misogynist because of his frank depiction of women, and a cynic because of his biting wit, Degas was, rather, arguably the keenest artistic observer of human nature since Rembrandt. And, although often aloof to strangers, Degas shared warmth and loyalty with his family as well as with a wide circle of friends, which included some of the greatest writers and artists of the epoch.

The works by Degas in this exhibition consist of twenty-four drawings, twenty prints, eight photographs, three monotypes, one sculpture, and a letter, all from a single private collection. The collection endeavors to illuminate the background and personality of Edgar Degas the man, as well as to present his genius as an artist. The subject matter of these works by Degas is often quite personal. In addition to three rare self-portraits, the collection includes depictions of his father, his brother Achille, an Italian niece, his loyal housekeeper Sabine Neyt, and the wife of a patron, Madame Ernest May; three portraits of Édouard Manet and two of Mary Cassatt; and drawings after antique sculpture and Old Masters such as Mantegna and Michelangelo. Works touch upon three notable themes of Degas’ oeuvre: the human body, horse racing, and the ballet. Also included is a group of brilliant color aquatints after Degas monotypes by Maurice Potin, which were commissioned shortly after the artist’s death by the owner of the original monotypes, Degas’ friend and dealer, Ambroise Vollard. An additional selection of more than forty rare works of art on paper enriches the exhibition. These pieces are by well-known artists, many of whom were friends of Degas.

All the compelling works in this exhibition come from the private collection of Robert Flynn Johnson, Curator Emeritus of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. These works have never before been exhibited together publicly and provide a delightful exploration into the art and personality of one of the most skilled, intelligent, and complex artists in the history of art. The exhibition includes full color catalog with a preface by Degas expert, Ann Dumas, Curator of The Royal Academy of Art, London. Exhibition organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA, in association with Denenberg Fine Arts, West Hollywood, CA

Exhibition Website

In 1970 David Hockney and Petersburg Press released Six Fairy Tales, a compilation of 39 etchings and the texts of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Fairy Tales, including:

• The Little Sea Hare
• Fundevogel
• Rapunzel 
• The Boy Who Left Home to Learn Fear  
• Old Rinkrank
• Rumpelstilzchen

In this exhibition of 39 etchings illustrating the 6 fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, Hockney has given each fairy tale his own interpretation. Rather than illustrating the stories literally, he has chosen vivid images to encapsulate a mood or detail. Some of the tales are familiar, like Rapunzel and Rumpelstilzchen; others, such as Old Rinkrank, Fundevogel and The Little Sea Hare are little known.His contemporary and often humorous approach to the tales is reflected in the quirky nature of the images. The 39 etchings were drawn directly onto copper plates by Hockney between May and November 1969. It was a decade in which etching featured strongly for Hockney. As well as Grimms' Fairy Tales, he made two other important series: A Rake's Progress (1961-3) and Illustrations for Thirteen Poems for CP Cavafy (1966).

David Hockney had always loved Grimm's Fairy Tales and had read all 220 of them. He also admired earlier illustrations to them by Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. In 1969 he decided to make his own images. He especially enjoyed the elements of magic in the tales, and his images focus on his imaginative response to the descriptions in the text rather than attempting to concentrate on the most important events in the narrative. They are therefore more than simply illustrations: they stand on their own as images, independent of the stories.

Venues include the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, CA and the Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, WA. The exhibition will be available through 2014.

ROBERT INDIANA: A - Z follows the 77 year ongoing career of this seminal artist from 1934 to his current work in 2011/2012. Featured are his icons – EAT, LOVE and HOPE and his latest masterpiece, THE ALPHABET, in many ways, the culmination of a his jo­­­urney as the world's premiere Word Artist. The exhibition presents more than 75 works showcasing Indiana's unique method of working on paper, canvas, print, and in three dimensions with the same image. Several important works in the exhibitions have never before shown, including a body of childhood drawings that track his early development, portraits of his close friend Ellsworth Kelly from the 1950s, and the first LOVE ever sculpted by the artist.

Born in Indiana [real name: Robert Clark] in 1928, he graduated from the Chicago Art Institute where fellow students included Pop Artist Claes Oldenberg, Red Grooms, and Photorealist, Richard Estes­­­. Indiana was one of the six founding fathers of Pop Art along with Andy Warhol. Warhol made the infamous film EAT about Indiana, the only artist about whom Warhol ever made a film. Indiana's LOVE, conceived origin- ally as a postcard for New York's Museum of Modern Art, is one of the most recognizable works in American Art and was rendered as sculptures, paintings, drawings, and prints, globally exhibited, and also as a U.S. Postage stamp. Indiana's work is in over 1000 collections in 100 countries including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum, The Whitney Museum, The Los Angeles County Museum, The Stedelijk Museum and The Louvre.

The Exhibition is curated by Michael McKenzie, former American Director of The Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo. McKenzie is the author of over 20 books in 30 languages including the highly influential ART FOR THE 80s [Abbeville], and monographs on Robert Indiana, Donald Sultan and Larry Rivers. The exhibition will be av­ailable beginning in 2012. The exhibition is available in 2 configurations for larger and smaller institutions. A catalog will be published.

Charles White (1918–1979) is one of the most significant artists of the 20th Century. White depicted both the depth of pain and the indomitable power of the African American experience. This special exhibition features 45 works of art - drawings, prints and paintings, spanning the late 1930's -1970's. Some of his most important works are represented in this exhibition. Included are 10 original works commissioned by the Johnson Publishing Company, illustrating major figures in Black History. The exhibition is curated by Charlotte Sherman who has been a champion of White's work since the 1960's. The exhibition is organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions and will premiere at the NCCU Art Museum, Durham, NC, in 2012.

THE KELLEY COLLECTION OF
AFRICAN AMERICAN ART:
WORKS ON PAPER
Exhibition Travels to Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, FL, and Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE

Richmond Barthé (1901-1989) is recognized as one of the foremost sculptors of his generation. Following his graduation from The Art Institute of Chicago in 1928, Barthé moved to New York and established a studio in Harlem where he became associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He is also known for his many public works. The exhibition is curated by esteemed art historian, Samella Lewis, Ph.D., in conjunction with the publication of her new extensive biography  

Included in the exhibition are 30 sculptures plus 10 photomurals of Barthe and his public works.The exhibition tour will began in the summer of 2009 at the Los Angles Museum of African American Art andl then traveled to the Dixon Gardens in Memphis, TN, the NCCU Art Gallery, Durham, NC, among others. Dates are available for scheduling beginning in 2011 through 2013.

The exhibition includes 75 works from the important German multi-volume Art Nouveau periodical, PAN, published between 1895-1900. It is replete with plates, illustrations, color initials, vignettes and tail-pieces representing a multitude of processes of modern picture reproduction, including original lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts, and other original and near-original processes in black and white or full colors by such French, Dutch, Belgian, German, English, and Swedish artists as Rodin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Signac, and Seurat;  Van de Velde; Rops; Kollwitz and Behrens; Nicholson, Rothenstein, and Pennell; and Anders Zorn, among many others.

The exhibition is enriched with an introduction and commentaries on the plates by the distinguished Curator Emeritus, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Robert Flynn Johnson; together with a cultural overview by the eminent curator and art critic, Peter Frank, and art historian and independent curator, Victoria Martino.