About the Museum
Press Release
CONTACT
Matt Montgomery
401/454-6793, mmontgom@risd.edu
The RISD Museum of Art
ADVANCE SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS
Summer 2010 through Spring 2011
THE MUSEUM IS CLOSED FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST
SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS
Siebren Versteeg
Friday, April 9 through Sunday, October 10, 2010
Siebren Versteeg (American, b. 1971) uses online mass media and commercial databases to investigate our media-saturated world in which the real and the virtual have become intertwined. Versteeg’s works employ computer programs that automatically connect to the Internet, browse different types of images, and bring them to monitors in a gallery space. This infinite flow of images, which creates a loose narrative, is a pseudo-random selection: the computer program chooses the images, but according to the artist’s instructions. This automatic process recalls everyday internet browsing and sometimes brings strange results. Some of Versteeg’s works are inspired by seminal art works that commented on social and political issues of their own time, such as Jasper Johns’s Flag series of paintings dating from the late 1950s and Vito Acconci’s video The Red Tapes (1976). The exhibition includes Versteeg’s Boom (Fresher Acconci), 2007, recently acquired for the Museum’s collection.
Tristin Lowe
Friday, May 28, through Sunday, October 24, 2010
Philadelphia-based multi-disciplinary artist Tristin Lowe (American, b. 1966) uses low- tech methods and materials, often employing absurdity and humor in his works. Lowe’s interpretations of both animate and inanimate objects have been made from unexpected materials, ranging from chocolate and smoke to fabric and fur. His newest series of works—focusing on outer space, planets, satellites, black holes, gravity, and orbital motion—seems more serious and contemplative in mood. For the Museum, the artist will fill the lower Farago Gallery with a giant moon made of white felt, an ancient fabric that is formed through a process of accumulation and which absorbs energy, light, and sound.
Odyssey: The Photographs of Linda Connor
Friday, July 2 through Sunday, October 31, 2010
This artist-designed installation of 76 photographs presents more than 30 years of work created as by Linda Connor (BFA 1967) traveled the world in search of sacred spaces. Connor works with a large-format camera to capture the rich detail of her subjects with remarkable clarity. The resulting photographs, printed in the sunlight of her garden in direct contact with her 8 x 10 inch negatives, are toned with gold chloride to achieve warmth and luminosity. The photographs in the exhibition, which were taken in the American Southwest, Egypt, India, Mexico, Nepal, Southeast Asia, Tibet, and Turkey, explore site steeped in the passage of time and resonant with spirituality. Organized by Hal Fischer Associates, the show is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
Lynda Benglis
Friday, October 1, 2010, through Sunday, January 9, 2011
American sculptor Lynda Benglis (American, b. 1941) is known for pioneering and challenging work that questions the rigors of Modernism and Minimalism by merging material, form, and content. Spanning 40 years, this exhibition represents the breadth of Benglis’s extraordinary creative output, including wax paintings and poured latex and polyurethane foam sculptures of the late 1960s; innovative videos, installations, and “knots” from the 1970s; metalized, pleated wall pieces of the 1980s and ’90s; and more recent works in a variety of mediums, such as the monumental cast-polyurethane The Graces. The exhibition also features documentary material underscoring Benglis’s interest in performance and self-promotion through magazines and invitation cards, including her infamous advertisement in Artforum in November 1974 that galvanized the art world. A 450-page fully illustrated hardcover monograph, produced by Les Presses du Réel, accompanies the exhibition. Lynda Benglis is organized by the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Le Consortium, Dijon; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; and New Museum, New York. For RISD, Judith Tannenbaum, Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art, will add ceramics from the 1990s and several other more recent works.
Opening of Ancient and Medieval Galleries
Friday, September 24, 2010
The Museum’s ancient collection, the only one of its kind in Rhode Island and one of the finest collections of any university museum in the country, includes exceptional bronze and coin holdings, stone sculpture, vases, Roman paintings and mosaics, an impressive jewelry collection, and fine teaching examples of terracotta and glass. The Museum’s fine Medieval and Gothic holdings include a 12th-century stone sculpture of St. Peter from the Third Abbey Church of Cluny, a massive Romanesque stone archway, delicately carved ivory panels, and a rare polychromed wooden statue of the Angel Gabriel from Tuscany. The galleries that house these collections, last installed in the 1940s, are being renovated and reinstalled thematically to make the objects more accessible and comprehensible, with special sections that explore materials and artistic processes and include period music. The restoration of the Ancient and Medieval galleries is the second phase of the Radeke Restoration Project, a multi-year program to renovate and reinstall the permanent collection galleries in the 1926 Radeke Building. The project, begun in 2006 with the restoration of the Main Gallery and the 3rd floor, will be completed in 2011, with renovations to the 6th floor and new exhibits for costume and textiles and Asian art. Support for the restoration of the 5th floor Ancient and Medieval galleries has been generously provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Glenn and Mary Jane Creamer, Drs. Yvonne and Arnold-Peter Weiss, George Wyper, and others.
Collision
Friday, November 12, 2010, through Thursday, March 10, 2011
This group exhibition presents exhilarating juxtapositions of artworks and processes as they collide with and are layered on top of one another. Embracing flexibility and open-endedness, the result is a vibrant environment that echoes the cultural loss and chaos created by the insertion of the new. Inspired by Robert Rauschenberg’s “combines” and his belief that the world can be viewed as a “gigantic painting from which to crop,” guest curator and abstract painter Jackie Saccoccio (RISD BFA ’85) has invited 17 artists to contribute to an ongoing installation as they see fit, with several artists working directly on the gallery walls. The show’s location in the lower Farago Gallery—the first space many RISD Museum visitors encounter on entering the building—stimulated some artists to examine architectural concerns about how building façades and entry spaces function. The participating artists are Caroline Achaintre, Nicole Cherubini (RISD BFA’93), Carl D’Alvia (RISD BFA’87), Lucky DeBellevue, Franklin Evans, Jeffrey Gibson, Susan Jennings (with Slink Moss), Michel Majerus, Marilyn Minter, Joyce Pensato, Erica Royer (RISD BFA’07), Jackie Saccoccio, Laura Stein, Nader Tehrani (RISD BArch’86), Doug Wada, Christopher Wool, and Kevin Zucker (RISD BFA’00).
Changing Poses: An Intimate Look at the Artist’s Model
Friday, November 12, 2010, through Sunday, June 5, 2011
Since ancient times, models have been an essential tool for artists depicting the human figure. Under different circumstances, an artist’s model could be female or male, amateur or professional, anonymous or intimately known, and of any age, body type, race, or class. Drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition demonstrates how the model was a crucial component in the creation of some of the RISD Museum’s finest drawings, prints, and photographs. In each case, models help us understand unique moments and sites of creation: distinguished art academies in Rome, bohemian studios in Paris, the glamorous world of Hollywood, and the gritty streets of New York. Through works by Giambattista Tiepolo, Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent, Andy Warhol, and many others, this exhibit demonstrates the variety of bodies and poses which have fueled creativity over the centuries. Organized by Crawford Alexander Mann III., Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow, Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs.
Cocktail Culture
Friday, April 15, 2011 through Sunday, July 31, 2011
Organized by the Museum’s Department of Costume and Textiles and curated by Joanne Dolan Ingersoll, Cocktail Culture is the first multi-disciplinary exhibition to explore the social ritual of drinking and entertainment through the lens of fashion and design. The exhibition will feature more than 200 objects—including decorative art such as barware and furniture and graphic arts, photography, and advertising—with examples of cocktail attire by Cristobal Balenciaga, Pierre Balmain, Geoffrey Beene, Pierre Cardin, Hattie Carnegie, Coco Chanel, Ceil Chapman, Oscar de la Renta, Christian Dior, Jacques Fath, James Galanos, Hubert de Givenchy, Halston, Mr. John, Sally Victor, Jeanne Lanvin, Yves Saint Laurent, Claire McCardell, Norman Norell, Jean Patou, Elsa Schiaparelli, Pauline Trigère, and other designers.
ROTATING COLLECTION GALLERIES
The Figure: Contemporary Works from the Collection
Friday, March 12, 2010, through March 2011
The human figure, one of the oldest motifs in the history of art, seems to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration for contemporary artists. The theme is represented here in a range of mediums and approaches, including painting, printmaking, sculpture, video, and needlework. Some artists represented in the exhibition use themselves as subject matter while others work with live models, photographs, or personal memory as a starting point. The selection of objects includes a number of recent acquisitions that are being exhibited at the Museum for the first time, including works by Tom Friedman, Tracey Emin, Keith Coventry, Judy Glantzman, Ryan Trecartin/Lizzie Fitch, Allison Newsome, and Grayson Perry, among others.
Of Clover and Chrysanthemum: Autumn Themes in Japanese Woodblock Prints
Wednesday, September 1, through Sunday, December 12
Autumn themes decorate a wide variety of objects in Japan. In woodblock prints, characteristic subjects such as chrysanthemums, morning glories, and autumn grasses are featured. Motifs such as geese flying before the autumn moon are based upon observations of seasonal changes in nature; these subjects also have rich literary associations.
From Dover to Penzance: Watercolor Views of the English Channel
Friday, September 3, through Sunday, June 5
The intersection of land, sea, and sky along England’s southern coastline offered a rich variety of subjects for 19th-century watercolor painters. Countless artists visited the white chalk cliffs at Dover, the remote rocky shores of Cornwall, and the many harbor towns and seaside resorts in between, depicting the waters of the English Channel in every conceivable mood and weather condition. Drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition features views of the English Channel by a selection of the period’s most talented and prolific watercolor specialists, including David Cox, Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding, and Philip James de Loutherbourg.
General Information
401 454-6500 or www.risdmuseum.org
Mailing Address: 224 Benefit Street, Providence, Rhode Island, 02903-2723
There are two entrances to the Museum, enter through the Chace Center at 20 N. Main Street, near the corner of N. Main and College Streets or through the Farago Wing on the corner of Benefit and Waterman Streets.
Hours + Admission
The Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am-5 pm. Closed Mondays and on January 1, July 4, Thanksgiving Day, and December 25 and the entire month of August. The Museum stays open until 9pm on the third Thursday of each month except December.
Members, children under 5: free
Adults: $10
Senior Citizens (62 years and older): $7
Youths (ages 5-18): $3
College Students (w/valid ID): $3
Pay-what-you-wish: Sunday, 10 am to 1 pm.
Free to all: third Thurs. monthly 5-9 pm, and the last Sat. of the month (except December). Sunday, 10 am to 1 pm: pay-what-you-wish.
Description
The RISD Museum of Art was founded as part of Rhode Island School of Design in 1877. Its permanent collection of more than 84,000 objects encompasses painting, sculpture, decorative arts, costume, furniture, and other works of art from nearly every part of the world and every era, including objects from Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and art of all periods from Asia, Europe, and the Americas, up to the latest in contemporary art.
EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: Updated January 7, 2010
Press Contact: Amy Pickworth or Carol Cutler, at amyjared@verizon.net or ccutler@risd.edu , 401 454-6322. Press images are available upon request. Press releases are available online at www.risdmuseum.org .
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The RISD Museum of Art, a world-class museum in Providence, RI, was founded as part of Rhode Island School of Design in 1877. Its permanent collection of more than 84,000 objects includes paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, costume, furniture, and other works of art from every part of the world, including objects from Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and art of all periods from Asia, Europe, and the Americas, up to the latest in contemporary art. In addition, the Museum offers a wide array of educational and public programs to more than 100,000 visitors annually.
