Current Museum Events

PÉREZ ART MUSEUM MIAMI EXHIBITIONS

Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks Opening Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks

August 12–October 16, 2016

Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks is the first major exhibition focused on Jean-Michel Basquiat’s notebooks, filled with poetry fragments, wordplay, sketches, and personal observations ranging from street life and popular culture to themes of race, class, and world history. This exhibition features 160 pages of these rarely seen documents, along with related works on paper and large-scale paintings.

 

A self-taught artist with encyclopedic and cross-cultural interests, Basquiat was influenced by comics, advertising, children’s sketches, Pop art, hip-hop, politics, and everyday life. Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks emphasizes the distinct interplay of text and images in Basquiat’s art, providing unprecedented insight into the importance of writing in the artist’s process. The notebook pages on display contain early renderings of iconic imagery—tepees, crowns, skeleton-like figures, and grimacing faces—that also appear throughout his large-scale works, as well as an early drawing related to his series of works titled Famous Negro Athletes.

 

 

Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks is organized by the Brooklyn Museum and is curated by Dieter Buchhart, guest curator, with Tricia Laughlin Bloom, former Associate Curator of Exhibitions, Brooklyn Museum. The presentation of this exhibition at Pérez Art Museum Miami has been organized by Assistant Curator María Elena Ortiz. It has been made possible by the Italian Trade Agency and Salone del Mobile.Milano with additional support from Facebook. Lead individual support was received from Patricia Papper and Nedra and Mark Oren. Special thanks to Larry Warsh and Lio Malca. Support from Heineken is also gratefully acknowledged.

NSU ART MUSEUM

Belief + Doubt: Selections from the Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz Collection is a snapshot of contemporary art from the 1990s to the present, with works by more than 60 artists including Kara Walker, Mickalene Thomas, Tracey Emin, Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith and others. Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz are among South Florida’s most prominent and active arts advocates and philanthropists, and their highly regarded collection focuses on the work of women artists, as well as African American, Latin American and South Florida artists. The exhibition is organized by NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale and curated by Bonnie Clearwater, Director and Chief Curator. On view through January 22, 2017.

FAU Presents Exhibition on Landscape Artists

A.E. Backus and Florida’s Highwaymen

 BOCA RATON, Fla. (August 1, 2016) – Florida Atlantic University’s University Galleries presents the exhibition, “A.E. Backus and Florida’s Highwaymen: History, Commerce and Art.” The exhibition will be on display from Friday, Sept. 16 through Saturday, Nov. 19 in the Ritter Art Gallery, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus. An opening reception will take place on Thursday, Sept. 15 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and will feature a 7 p.m. presentation by one of the participating humanities scholars. The opening and reception are free and open to the public.

The exhibition brings to the public new scholarly insights into the work of A.E. “Bean” Backus, Florida’s preeminent landscape painter, and the Highwaymen, a group of 26 African-American artists influenced to varying degrees by Backus. The exhibition consists of a selection of original Backus works owned by FAU and a number of Highwaymen paintings borrowed from regional collectors. Didactic wall texts, accompanied by historical photographs and artifacts, will provide viewers with the contexts for comparing the styles and themes of the paintings and for understanding how the Highwaymen emerged and commercially produced their unprecedented works of art.  Specifically, the exhibition will address Backus’ relation to these young artists during Jim Crow Florida in the 50s and 60s; Backus’ own place in the history of Florida landscape painting; commerce and art; illusions and perceptions of the Florida landscape; and the contribution of these landscape paintings to the Florida Dream.

A series of public programs will take place while the exhibition is on display. Lectures by Florida-based humanities scholars will analyze the social, historical and political milieu of these artists. Also, a panel of several contemporary African-American visual artists will critically examine and offer fresh perspectives on the content, stylistic renderings and aesthetics of these paintings.

The University Galleries’ Ritter Art Gallery at FAU is open Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 4 p.m., and Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. Visitors must obtain a $2 parking pass or use the limited metered parking before visiting the gallery. More extensive parking directions are available online at www.fau.edu/galleries. The University Galleries operate an active Museum Education Program that is approved as a Field Experience Provider by the School District of Palm Beach County. Class and other group tours can be arranged during and outside of open hours by appointment. For more information, visit www.fau.edu/galleries or call 561- 297-2661.