Displaying items by tag: scholars

The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin has announced that it will begin construction of Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin in October. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for October 31, and the building is projected to open to the public in late 2016 or early 2017. In celebration, the Blanton will host, on October 31, a symposium on Kelly with leading scholars and curators from across the country.

The project was announced in February, and the Blanton has received formal approval from the university’s Board of Regents, clearing the way for construction to begin this fall.

The Tenth Annual MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK week will take place January 23 through January 30, with a Preview scheduled for Friday, January 22, at 30 leading art galleries on the Upper East Side’s “Gold Coast’ in New York.

Timed to coincide with New York’s major January art-buying events, including the Old Master auctions and The Winter Antiques Show, over the past decade MASTER DRAWINGS NEW YORK has given top dealers from the US as well as the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy an opportunity to show their newest acquisitions to the largest assembly of drawings scholars and patrons to gather in New York each year.

A British university disclosed Wednesday that scientific tests prove a Quran manuscript in its collection is one of the oldest known and may have been written close to the time of the Prophet Muhammad.

The announcement by the University of Birmingham thrilled Muslim scholars and the local community, which boasts one of the country's largest Muslim populations. The find came after questions raised by a doctoral student prompted radiocarbon testing that dated the parchment to the time of the prophet, who is generally believed to have lived between 570 and 632.

Collecting scrimshaw is a dicey hobby, given the prevalence of forgeries in the field — plastic resin copies are known as fakeshaw.

The welding supply magnate Thomas Mittler, who died in 2010 at 67, bought whale bone and tooth carvings with the guidance of scholars and dealers, including Nina Hellman, who owns a marine antiques store on Nantucket. Her new book, “Through the Eyes of a Collector: The Scrimshaw Collection of Thomas Mittler,” was published by Charlotte Mittler, the widow of Mr. Mittler; he had long planned to commission a publication about his hundreds of acquisitions.

Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and the Yale University Art Gallery are acquiring the Meserve-Kunhardt Collection, one of the nation’s most historically significant photographic collections and the definitive assemblage of portraits of Abraham Lincoln.

“With this remarkable acquisition, Yale has secured its place as the premier institution for the study of American photography from the Civil War to the Gilded Age,” says Yale President Peter Salovey. “I am delighted that faculty, students, and scholars from around the country and around the globe will have the opportunity to study this collection, learn from it, and share that knowledge.”

The Lens Media Laboratory (LML), a new research facility that will apply scientific principles to the characterization and conservation of photographs and other lens-based media, has been created as part of the Yale Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH), a center dedicated to improving the science and practice of conservation globally. Paul Messier, a renowned photography conservator, will join Yale as the inaugural head of the LML. Funding for the endowed directorship and laboratory start-up has been provided by an anonymous donor.

“This extraordinary gift will catalyze the development of new methods for scholars to classify, preserve, and interpret photographs and other lens media, both physical and digital,” said Stefan Simon, director of the IPCH. “In Paul Messier, we have successfully attracted one of the foremost experts in the world, whose track record of working across a diverse range of constituencies and disciplines — from museums to individual collectors and humanities to the sciences — will be a tremendous asset to this endeavor.”

Thanks to a new film based on the critically acclaimed exhibition "Rembrandt: The Late Works" that debuted at the National Gallery, London, and opens at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, on February 12, U.S. audiences will be able to experience the exhibition on screen. For one night only, on February 24, the new film "Rembrandt from the National Gallery London and Rijksmuseum Amsterdam" will be presented at over 300 movie theaters across the country.The film gives viewers an opportunity to see the once-in-a-lifetime installations of Rembrandt's paintings, prints, and drawings in these two preeminent institutions and learn more about the revered Dutch artist from scholars, curators, and art historians. Given exclusive access by both museums, the film documents this extraordinary presentation and interweaves Rembrandt's life story with the preparations at both institutions.

Betsy Wieseman, Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings, National Gallery, and Jonathan Bikker, Curator of Research at the Rijksmuseum, among others, provide illuminating context regarding Rembrandt's life and times.

"Old Masters, New Voices" is a themed panel series hosted annually by the Old Master Paintings department at Sotheby’s, inviting contemporary scholars, artists, and specialists to take a new look at the influence of Old Master Paintings. This year’s panel, coinciding with Sotheby’s Master Week sales on January 29, will focus on the role played by food in the history of Western Art. From the sumptuous feasts so delicately reproduced in 17th century painting, to the use of food in 21st century performance art, the panel discussion will explore the ways in which artists have used food throughout history.

Christopher Apostle, Sotheby’s Senior Vice President and Head of Old Master Paintings Department and George Wachter, Sotheby’s Executive Vice President and Co-Chairman of Old Master Paintings Worldwide invite the public to join Old Masters, New Voices 2015 panel discussion, moderated by Michael Wilson, former Editor in Chief of La Cucina Italiana.

Since the advent of Pop art in the late 1950s, artists have been tasked with contending with its legacy and implications. Scholars and curators are now looking at the movement with a similar sense of urgency.

This month, Yale University Press is due to publish the art historian Thomas Crow’s book "The Long March of Pop: Art, Music and Design 1930-95," which examines the place of artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein within the wider web of 20th-century American and international culture.

On Sunday, November 16, the Harvard Art Museums -- comprising the Fogg Art Museum, the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum -- reopened to the public under one state-of-the-art roof. The extensive renovation and expansion, which began in 2008, was helmed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. According to Thomas W. Lentz, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard Art Museums, “We [wanted] to create a new kind of laboratory for the fine arts that would support our mission of teaching across disciplines, conducting research, and training museum professionals. We also wanted to strengthen the museums’ role as an integral part of Cambridge and Boston’s cultural ecosystem.”

The renovation involved transforming the landmark Georgian revival building at 32 Quincy Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which housed the Fogg and the Busch-Reisinger Museum, into an arts-centric hub for students, scholars, Harvard faculty, and the public.