Into Americana Week

| January 16, 2012

Americana Week 2011 Photo by Eric Miller

Americana Week has begun. Yesterday perhaps the first event of the week was a gallery talk at Keno Auctions ”American Still Life Painting in the 19th Century,” with Dr. William H. Gerdts. There’s a good deal of excitement and enthusiasm around Americana Week this year. The American Wing Galleries are re-opening at the Met and [...]

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A Gaggle of Interest, Americana Week Edition

| January 15, 2012

Christie

In this series, the UAA team will list some of the interesting items that we have found in auctions, antique shops, shows or eBay. We neither own the items or have the capability of examining the items in person in some cases. It mainly serves as an inventory record of what interests us (not necessarily in [...]

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Chinese Art in San Antonio Museum of Art

| January 15, 2012

Pink Enamels Medallion Bowl from Daoguang Period at SAMA

If, according to a director of a New York art institution, the first thing that curators should study is the neighborhood’s demography, then a collection in San Antonio will seem out of place.  If an emphasis on Latino culture, with a vast selection from pre-Columbia, Spanish Colonial to contemporary, matches the city’s dominant Hispanic population, [...]

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Renowned Art Deco Artist Hildreth Meière Celebrated in New Exhibition at the Museum of Biblical Art

| January 12, 2012

St. Peter, detail of the Transfiguration, 1928.

Renowned and versatile Art Deco muralist Hildreth Meière (1892-1961) is the subject of the Museum of Biblical Art’s exciting new exhibition Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth Meière. On view from February 3 to May 20, 2012, Walls Speak showcases the liturgical designs this path-breaking artist created for many of the New York metropolitan [...]

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Faces On the Walls — Visiting San Antonio Museum of Art

| January 7, 2012

San Antonio Museum of Art

Situated north of downtown San Antonio along the famous River Walk, the San Antonio Museum of Art is housed in the historic Lone Star Brewery building complex. From the outside, the complex lacks the grandeur of Beaux-Arts facades. Multi-floored, with a subdued sun-fade yellow, the brick buildings give the feeling of a genteel southern living [...]

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At Blanton Museum of Art – Connoisseurship with a Touch of Cool

| January 2, 2012

Blanton Museum of Art Interior Jan 2, 2012

Austin feels young, so does its museum. The American collection at the Blanton Museum of Art does not cover the first 100 years’ art of the nation, not to mention colonial times. Yet the presentation succeeds in holding an inviting angel that solicits comparison, connection and communication. In one room that features works of the [...]

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No More Boundaries: New York’s Latest “Antiques” Show Refuses to be Boxed In

| December 19, 2011

Following a decision by the Philadelphia Antiques Show to allow items in the show created as recently as 1970, comes a press release from New York’s Metro Show about a new mantra for collectors and designers: no more boundaries. According to the release “collectors, design aficionados, and art-insiders will be treated to an astonishing array [...]

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Sometimes These Things Happen: The Buzz About Grindr Art, R. Mateo Diago at RO2

| December 18, 2011

The world we live in is often planned, pondered over and reviewed in our dreams while lying still, or sleeping in bed. Such a bed was placed as a nucleus in the new exhibit at RO2 Gallery in downtown Dallas. Around it hung messages of personal motivation and introspection. From there spun the web of [...]

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Nude Life Sketch of Lady Gaga by Tony Bennett on Ebay

| December 18, 2011

A nude sketch of Lady Gaga by crooner Tony Bennett has gone viral (like much of what Lady Gaga is involved in). The Vancouver Sun reports that the 85-year-old Bennet released the portrait after they recorded “The Lady Is a Tramp.” The original charcoal drawing is being auctioned as a benefit for Gaga’s anti-bullying foundation, Born [...]

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Frederic Remington: Big art is the process of Elimination

| December 17, 2011

Frederic Remington Ridden Down

I was at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art to give a docent tour today and took another look at a work called Ridden Down by Frederic Remington. You can see a painting a dozen times and then finally connect to it, or connect to it in a new way.  Today I noticed a [...]

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