Director’s Desk: Pérez Art Museum Miami

Perez Museum Miami_DK

(Left) Exterior of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (Right) Bicycle installation by artist Ai Wei Wei. Photos: Dorothy Kosinski

Earlier this month we were in Miami for the Art Basel Miami Beach fair and enjoyed our visit to the new  Pérez Art Museum Miami. These photos reveal how the  Herzog & de Meuron building addresses the waterfront and how it incorporates native plantings and gracious outdoor spaces so appropriate for the Miami climate. The bicycle installation (pictured at right above) is, of course, by Ai Wei Wei, in the same exhibition we enjoyed at the Hirshhorn earlier this  year. My Pérez museum colleagues were brave, indeed, to open even with lots of building details still being completed and with the ongoing construction of the nearby science center causing major inconveniences. I look forward to visiting again when the museum and adjacent buildings are complete. It is a huge addition to the city’s  cultural landscape.

Artists in Italy: Joseph Stella and Giorgio de Chirico

Read part one in this series.

Joseph Stella, Vesuvius, c. 1915-20. Watercolor and pencil on paper, 9 1/2 x 13 1/4 in. (24.1 x 33.7 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., Gift of Jennifer and Alan Pensler in memory of Leslie Pensler, 1997.

Joseph Stella, Vesuvius, c. 1915-20. Watercolor and pencil on paper, 9 1/2 x 13 1/4 in. (24.1 x 33.7 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., Gift of Jennifer and Alan Pensler in memory of Leslie Pensler, 1997.

Born near Naples, Italy in 1877, the artist Joseph Stella  moved to the United States at the age of 18 where he began a career in medicine before attending the Art Students League in New York to study painting. He traveled to Paris in 1909, was inspired by cubism and futurism, and later participated in the Armory Show of 1913. He continued to experiment with styles, the result of which can be seen in the vibrant colors of his watercolor Vesuvius from between 1920 and 1940, shown above. Italian Landscape, also from this time period, shows softer colors and more subtle references to modern techniques.

While born to Italian parents, Giorgio de Chirico  grew up in Volos, Greece, and studied art in Athens, Italy, and Germany. As an adult, de Chirico lived in many cities throughout Italy, each leaving its mark on his work. The painting seen below, Horses (1928), depicts two horses on a beach standing before a Roman architectural structure that refers to the legacy of Italian culture.

Drew Lash, Curatorial Intern

Giorgio de Chirico, Horses, c. 1928. Oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 25 5/8 in. (50.2 x 65 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., Acquired 1929.

Giorgio de Chirico, Horses, c. 1928. Oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 25 5/8 in. (50.2 x 65 cm). The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., Acquired 1929.

Picturing the Sublime

Prepare to be awed. Picturing the Sublime: Photographs from the Joseph and Charlotte Lichtenberg Collection is now open. Here’s just a taste, but be warned: these photos reveal much more when viewed up close. For a smaller show (eleven works in total), I’m surprised by the range in content—there’s everything from the raw and untouched beauty of Richard Misrach‘s deserts to Edward Burtynsky‘s landscapes, so altered by human activity that I almost feel guilty calling them beautiful. The exhibition is on view through January 13, 2013, and on November 15 exhibition curator Susan Behrends Frank discusses the photographers and their works in a Curator’s Perspective.

Amy Wike, Publicity and Marketing Coordinator

Entrance to the exhibition Picturing the Sublime

Photo: Amy Wike

Image of three photographs featured in the Picturing the Sublime exhibition

Left to right: (1) Lynn Davis, Iceberg XI, Disko Bay, Greenland, 2004 (2) Carleton Watkins, Lower Yosemite Fall, 418 Feet, 1865-66 (3) Richard Misrach, Battleground Point #5, 1999. Photo: Amy Wike