Recent Exhibitions

As part of its fiftieth anniversary celebrations, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art is currently showing an exhibition titled "Conversations." The show features traditional and contemporary pieces from Africa shown alongside African American artworks -- including works by such prominent figures as Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Beauford Delaney, Faith Ringgold and Henry Ossawa Tanner -- and draws on two important collections: that of the museum itself and the private collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr. (Worldwide 36252)

Earlier this month saw the closing of the 31st Bienal de São Paulo, centered this year around the theme of absences created by a world that is in a constant state of transformation. More than 80 international artists participated, among them Dan and Lia Perjovschi, Erick Beltran, Jo Baer, León Ferrari, Mark Lewis, Halil Altindere, Sheela Gowda, Teatro da Vertigem, Wilhelm Sasnal, Walid Raad and Yael Bartana. (Worldwide 36081)

For the second time in the past decade, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University has mounted a major exhibition on contemporary Taiwanese art. Following the successful 2004 exhibition "Contemporary Taiwanese Art in the Era of Contention" (Worldwide 29558), a collaboration with the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the Johnson Museum recently presented "Jie (Boundaries): Contemporary Art from Taiwan," this time in collaboration with the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.  The show presents works by 33 emerging artists while examining the impact of globalization in Taiwan. (Worldwide 36138)

Duane Michals

A self-taught photographer, New York-based artist Duane Michals (b. 1932) broke away from established traditions of the medium during the 1960s, his oeuvre characterized by the innovative use of photo-sequences that often incorporate text to explore emotion or philosophical ideas.  Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art is now holding a major retrospective on Michals's work, featuring such well-known early sequences as The Spirit Leaves the Body, Paradise Regained, and Chance Meeting, as well as such later works as The Bewitched Bee and Who is Sidney Sherman? The exhibition catalogue (Worldwide 36113) is supplemented by an auto-biographical primer (Worldwide 80283) in which Michals organizes his ideas, influences and observations.

Gustave Doré

During his lifetime, prominent French artist Gustave Doré (1832-1883) was perhaps best known as an illustrator, his etchings bringing to life such literary characters and classical heroes as Gargantua,  Don Quixote and Hercules.  One such magnificent example of his work is the suite of images in the 1867 edition of Jean de La Fontaine's Fables, many plates of which were featured in a recent publication by the Bibliothèque national de France (Worldwide 80354). Earlier this year, the Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain in Strasbourg presented a selection of Doré's prints alongside the work of later illustrators and artists, demonstrating his lasting influence in France and elsewhere (see Worldwide 80344). 

Recent Publications

In keeping with the season, the New Mexico History Museum has organized an exhibition that highlights holiday greeting cards designed and sent by noted New Mexico printmaker and painter Gustave Baumann (1881-1971) and other artists from the Taos and Santa Fe artist colonies from the 1910s through the 60s.  A companion publication features an extensive selection of the cards reproduced in full color. (Worldwide 80263)

One of the leading practitioners in the field of bookbinding today is French artist Jean de Gonet (b. 1950), known for his masterful use of color and his innovative use of such materials as wood and metal. More than 150 of his creations from the past four decades were featured in a 2013 exhibition at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. (Worldwide 80383)

An exhibition titled "Motopoétique" presented  works in a variety of media created over the past two decades that explore the theme of motorcycles and their riders, the show focusing on the unique "biker culture" that surrounds them. Paintings, videos, sculptures and installations by such international artists as Jeremy Deller, Shaun Gladwell, Pierre et Gilles, Xavier Veilhan, Moo Chew Wong, Charles Moody and Ali Kazma were on view at the Musée d'art contemporain, Lyon. (Worldwide 80305)