Fine Lines: Brooklyn Museums American Drawings

Fine Lines: American Drawings from the Brooklyn Museum presents a selection of more than a hundred rarely seen drawings and sketchbooks produced between 1768 and 1945 from the Brooklyn Museum’s exceptional collection. The exhibition will feature the work of more than seventy artists, including John Singleton Copley, Stuart Davis, Thomas Eakins, William Glackens, Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Eastman Johnson, Georgia O’Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, and Benjamin West. Read more

Frick Launches Redesigned, Expanded Website

home page The Frick Collection has announced the launch of its new website. Key features of the redesigned and expanded site include a new interactive virtual tour with access to information and zoomable images for more than 1,000 works of art in the permanent collection and enhanced content in the areas of research, programs, and media.

Additionally, the site has been streamlined to allow greater integration between the institution’s museum and library, and highlights the improved layout and easier navigation of sections relating to exhibitions, membership, special events, and the Museum Shop. Read more

Louis Hensel: My Life in America

Details of mid-19th-century life come alive in the letters of a German immigrant, translated by Sigrid Wilshinsky and recently published as My Life in America Before, During and After the Civil War.

Louis Hensel was born in 1817 and lived a life of travel and adventure, as colorfully described in letters to his granddaughter back in Germany. Wilshinsky translated them from Suderlein German into modern English. Read more

Landmark John Singer Sargent Exhibition Planned

The Brooklyn Museum, together with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has organized the landmark exhibition John Singer Sargent Watercolors, which unites for the first time the holdings of Sargent watercolors acquired by each of the two institutions in the early twentieth century. The ninety-three watercolors in the exhibition&#8211including thirty-eight from Brooklyn’s collection, most of which have not been on view for decades&#8211provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity to view a broad range of Sargent’s finest production in the medium. Read more

Discovering Columbus From Atop Columbus Circle

Columbus steers over Central Park

The enormous thirteen-foot tall explorer is steering the Santa Maria right over Central Park. Tatzu Nishi’s “Discovering Columbus” allows visitors to climb 75 feet up the column in Columbus Circle to see the famous statue up close. Nishi has surrounded it with a living room stage set, furnished with modern accoutrements from Bloomingdale’s, that gives a truly odd twist to the experience of seeing the pock-marked monument set atop a coffee table.
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Albany Institute Launches New Lecture Series

Beginning this month the Albany Institute of History &amp- Art will launch a new monthly lecture series entitled Making It American. The series will take a broad look at what art and material culture can teach us about the development of American history, culture, the arts, politics, and our identity as a nation.

In this series, invited scholars will analyze American values and ideals to enhance our experience and understanding of our world. A painting or school of painters, or a spinning wheel or farm kitchen tools will serve as touchstones for the series. Read more

NYS Museum: New Deal Artists Exhibit Opens

A new exhibition &#8212- 1934: A New Deal for Artists &#8212- has opened at the New York State Museum showcasing paintings created against the backdrop of the Great  Depression with the support of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), the first federal government  program to support the arts nationally.

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised a &#8220new deal for the American people,&#8221 initiating government programs to foster economic recovery. Roosevelt’s pledge to help &#8220the forgotten man&#8221 also embraced America’s artists. Read more

New Washington Irving Treasury Box Set Published

Three time-honored stories by Washington Irving, classic tales told again and again, have been released together in the cloth-bound box set A Washington Irving Treasury (Universe Publishing, 2012). The high-spirited stories of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow present memorable folk characters that have become part of America’s literary lexicon, while Old Christmas preserves the nostalgia, warmth, and joy of English Christmas traditions. Read more

Exhibit: Side-by-Side Hudson River School Imagery

Many of the iconic landscape scenes painted by Hudson River School artists, now hanging in major museums all over the world, are the breathtaking views surrounding the Hudson River Valley. Thanks to preservationists and conservationists, several of these vistas remain remarkably similar to their 19th-century appearance and are instantly recognizable. Read more

Program Focusing Rockwell Kents Art, Life

The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s (ESF) Adirondack Interpretive Center will celebrate the work of Adirondack artist Rockwell Kent with a daylong event on October 20, 2012.

Caroline Welsh, director emeritus of the Adirondack Museum, will present a program on Kent’s artistic legacy, including many images of his work. Paul Hai, program director for ESF’s Northern Forest Institute, which manages the Interpretive Center, and Marianne Patinelli-Dubay, environmental philosopher with NFI, will provide readings and insights on Kent’s physical and personal adventures.

Kent was born in New York City in 1882. He was a painter, illustrator, architect, author, traveler, and humanist whose reputation was widely known in the early 20th century. In his mid-40s, he moved to an Adirondack farm he named Asgaard near Ausable Forks, where he designed and built a home and artist’s studio. Kent died at Asgaard in 1971.

In addition to the presentation about Kent, the AIC will host two regional artists, Diane Leifheit of Gabriels and William Elkins of Syracuse, who will be painting and drawing along the trails. Participants are invited to see the artists’ work, talk with them about tips and techniques, and bring a journal to practice alongside them.

The day will conclude with an informal art show and light reception.

The program, titled, “They Broke the Mold after Making Him,” will run from 10 am to 4 pm. There is no charge to attend the event but participants are encouraged to register in advance by calling the Adirondack Interpretive Center at 518-582-2000 or by sending an email to [email protected]. To see a schedule of events, visit the AIC online.

Photo: Rockwell Kent’s studio at Asgaard (courtesy Wikipedia user Mwanner).