Art Shows

Nestled on the western shore of Otsego Lake — James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass Lake” — in historic Cooperstown NY, the Fenimore Art Museum presents a perspective on the heritage and history of America through art. The beauty of the museum setting and the museum’s expansive galleries are matched by the quality of the collections it houses, including some of the nation’s finest examples of folk art; landscape, history, portrait, and genre paintings by some of the best known American artists; more than 125,000 historical photographs; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of Native American art.

The Fenimore Art Museum is that rare art museum where one can see diverse collections of American art in rich and eclectic exhibitions. William Sidney Mount, Thomas Cole, Gilbert Stuart, Benjamin West, E.L. Henry, Eastman Johnson, Thomas Waterman, John Wesley Jarvis, Grandma Moses and Ralph Fasanella are all represented in the museum’s holdings.

Comprising nearly 850 art objects, the Native American art collection is widely recognized as one of the nation’s premier collections of American Indian art. Representing a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, including Northwest Coast, Woodlands, Prairie, Plateau, Plains, Southwest, California, The Great Basin, Arctic and Subarctic, The New York Times described it as “a collection any museum in the world should envy.”

]]>

The exhibition explores the extraordinarily diverse forms of visual expression in Native American heritage. Organized by geographic culture areas, the objects were chosen both for their high artistic quality and to provide insight into the complex cultural, aesthetic and spiritual meanings embedded in the art. The objects span 20 centuries dating from pre-history to today, and celebrate the continuing vitality of Native American art.

Fenimore’s folk art collection is one of the nation’s largest and finest. Begun with extensive gifts from Stephen C. Clark, the collection includes a variety of paintings, ship figureheads, quilts, weathervanes, trade signs, cigar-store figures, carvings, and decorated stoneware, all created by American folk artists. The oldest piece in the collection, a seven-foot-long panel on which Hudson River Valley painter John Heaton depicted the Martin Van Bergen farmstead in 1733, is considered to be the earliest scene of everyday life ever painted in this country.

The fine art collection contains some of the best examples of American landscape, history, and genre painting. The works of Hudson River School painters are well represented and include Thomas Cole’s Last of the Mohicans and Asher B. Durand’s Hudson River Looking Toward the Catskills. Historical portraits include Gilbert Stuart’s Joseph Brant, Ralph Earl’s Baron Von Steuben, and Benjamin West’s Robert Fulton.

In addition to the permanent collections, the Fenimore Art Museum has won critical acclaim in recent years for its exhibitions showcasing American masters such as Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington, Grandma Moses, and John Singer Sargent. The museum’s traveling exhibitions program has reached hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

­Dr. Paul S. D’Ambrosio is Vice President and Chief Curator at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY

Originally published here.

Owning a private Art Gallery will definitely be a great fun if you enjoy visiting museums and looking at paintings. Why not create an art gallery in your own home? Whether you like Van Gogh Oil Paintings or tend to buy abstract paintings, you can use the canvas oil paintings you’ve purchased to form a stunning, original art gallery in no time at home or in you office. Well, there are some tips on creating a home art gallery or office art gallery for you.

Home Art Gallery

First. Space. Find a space. You need an empty area for hanging and displaying artwork. A bare wall in your living room can become a pop art gallery, and you can even convert an empty walk-in closet to a digital art gallery if you’re really short on space. If you want to show your gallery to friends, put your art gallery in an open, easily-accessible area; if not, choose a private space.

Second. Theme. Decide on a theme. Your art gallery will look much more professional if you pick a theme and stick to it. You can display by the artist or by the subjest or by the style. For the artist part, you can choose Da vinci, Van Gogh, Klimt, Monet famous artists and so on. For the subject, lanscape oil paintings, abstract oil paintings, and flower oil paintings something like that are ok. For the style, impression, new nouveau and symblism are nice. Of course, you can display as your own taste. Also, if you put your family photo together, your art gallery can be stunning beautiful.

]]>

Once you’ve chosen a space and a theme, it’s time to put up your gallery. Display your artwork precisely. Flawless execution will be what sets your contemporary art gallery apart. If you plan to hang your paintings, use a level to line them up and keep a uniform width between the artwork. If you want to create a more eclectic photo art gallery, use easels to display your favorite images or hang photos closer together for a cozier feel. Pick up matching frames when you buy art so your drawings and paintings will have a professional look.

Office Art Gallery

First. Space.  Figure out where to put a gallery. An art display will look great on a blank wall opposite your desk, especially if it features neutral paint, such as white, cream or taupe. Consider creating a photo art gallery with black-and-white photos of your family, close friends or business associates and clients. If you don’t have an empty wall you can turn into a contemporary art gallery, consider using the side of a bookshelf or even the back side of your office door to display a contemporary art gallery. While you won’t be able to create a large contemporary or modern art gallery in a small space, you can still buy art and display your favorite paintings or photographs in matching or complementary frames to get the crisp, professional look typical of a museum art display.

Second. Theme. Choose a theme. Since you will be displaying this gallery in your workplace, you’ll want to present and buy art that matches the tone of your business and can be shown in a professional way. A fine art gallery that features pieces from famous artists, including Van Gogh or Raphael, will look wonderful in a formal workplace, while a pop art gallery with bright, eclectic paintings will probably work better in a more casual workplace. You might also choose to create an original art gallery that features sketches or drawings done by a close friend or an up-and-coming local artist; you can even create your own animation and other computer-enhanced artwork and display it in a digital art gallery. Whatever your theme, make sure that all of the artwork displayed fits with the other pieces and matches the feel of your company so you can achieve a clean, polished style at work.

Once you’ve chosen a space and a theme, it’s time to put up your oil paintings art gallery. A fine art gallery with the same size of paintings lined up in a row will look sophisticated and formal. However, you can make a pop art gallery more relaxed, especially if you buy frames in various colors and art in many different sizes. Make a photo art gallery really pop by combining close-up images with landscapes and mixing shots of people with photos of architecture. If your original art gallery contains pottery or sculptures, show them off on a side table and hang paintings and sketches on the wall above them.
  

Originally published here.

Taking the crown held for half a century by Peggy Guggenheim and her collection-cum-home situated in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on the Grand Canal, Venice’s newest art gallery is the Punta della Dogana. Where Guggenheim’s collection of American Modernism, Italian Futurism, and French Surrealism once claimed the title of “most contemporary” in the vast Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque output of the Serene Republic, the Punta della Dogana houses a decidedly more post-modern fare. Drawn from François Pinault’s impressive portfolio of contemporary art products, one is likely to stumble across works by Takeshi Murakami, Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst in the Tadao Ando refurbished palazzo. A far cry from the Carpaccio and Veronese – or for that matter Peggy’s Ernst and Boccioni – the François Pinault Foundation’s Dogana is a site keeping Venice’s art scene alive and well in light of international competition.

Housed in the Palazzo Grassi (once famously owned by Fiat developer, Gianni Agnelli who use to display his own art collection in the building), the Dogana is located at the southernmost point of the sestiere Dorsoduro, right next to the imposing basilica of Santa Maria della Salute. A short distance to travel for anyone staying at the fine hotels in Venice located on the Giudecca, the seventeenth century building is worth a visit in and of itself. Designed by Benoni and capped with a rotating statue of Fortuna by Bernardo Falconi, the building once housed the custom offices of the Venetian Republic. While much of the exterior remains untouched, the interior – retrofitted to the design taste of Tadao Ando – has been open, reorganized and encased in concrete to create a space harmonious with its post-modern art objects.

Since its opening with a lavish party in 2009 during the Venice Beinnale (the annual art trade show where the new and notable like to display their offerings) the Dogana has entertained guests such as Charlotte Casiraghi (Princess Grace of Monaco’s granddaughter), Stella McCartney and Marc Jacobs who undoubtedly took to the exhibitions with great excitement. Chancing upon a stay at the lovely Venice hotels, one would do well to consult with the concierge desk on the last exhibit and the Dogana’s hours of operations to ensure a fabulous day of post-modern art in the dreamy, Floating City.

Originally published here.