Displaying items by tag: public museums

Norman Braman, the auto dealership magnate, has just uttered the words every contractor dreams of hearing: “Whatever the cost is, we will be building it, period.”

Sitting with his wife, Irma, on the patio of their Indian Creek Island home, off Miami Beach, he has been outlining their plans to single-handedly fund the design and construction of South Florida’s newest major museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. It could be a cultural game changer in a city crowded with four significant private museums, two more on the way and three public ones all focused on contemporary art.

The Art Gallery of Toronto (AGO) has announced that it will host the first-ever major retrospective of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s (1960-1988) work in Canada. The show, which will run from February 7, 2015 to May 10, 2015, will feature over 140 paintings and drawings from private collections and public museums across Europe and North America. After its time at the AGO, “Basquiat” will travel to the Centro Cultural Banco de Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, in July 2015.

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.