A new art exhibit which opened at the Austin Peay State University Trahern Gallery this month will showcase the art form’s entry into the 21st century. “Jettison – New Ideas in Abstraction” began on Sept. 8th and will continue through Sept. 25th features works from 17 artists, including some of the top names in the country working in this genre, such as Thomas Nozkowski, Jonathan Lasker and Josh Smith.

Tiffany Calvert’s 2009 acrylic and oil on canvas piece, “untitled (Gunspots).” 48 X 60 inches.

The artists in the show have exhibited their work through North America and Europe. Nozkowski’s paintings are currently featured in collections such as of The Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum, all in New York City. Lasker’s paintings are part of collections including the Museum Ludwig, in Cologne, Germany, The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Fond National d’Art Contemporain in Paris. Smith’s work is featured in the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst in Oslo, Norway, and the Museum of Modern Art, among others.

“There’s been more attention on abstraction in the last few years,” Warren Greene, show curator and director of the Trahern Gallery, said. “There’s been a lot of inspiration, in terms of how you approach abstraction that’s different than the way it was practiced throughout most of the 20th century.”

Abstract art has sometimes been criticized over the years as lacking substance and style, but as noted art researcher Ruth Crnkovich writes in an essay on the Jettison show, “with just a bit of quiet contemplation and thoughtful evaluation, the subtle meanings begin to reveal themselves to the viewer.”

The exhibit opened Sept. 8th with a lecture by Mark Scala, curator of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, a gallery viewing and reception followed.

“The show is going to challenge some people’s expectations of what abstract painting is,” Greene said. “Sometimes it’s intentionally crude. Some of it is beautiful, some of it is kind of strange.”

But as Crnkovich suggests, the viewer should “not fear the new or the different, but embrace it, contemplate it, converse with it, experience it.”

The exhibit and the opening night lecture are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Greene at 931-221-6519 or .

Nashville – The Frist Center for the Visual Arts will present Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris, opening Sept. 10, 2009, in the Upper-Level Galleries. The show, which offers a unique perspective on Surrealism by examining the intersection of documentary photography, manipulated photography and film, will be on exhibition through Jan. 3, 2010, when it will travel to the International Center of Photography in New York followed by the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Ga.

Ilse Bing. Danseusue-Cancan, Moulin Rouge, Paris, 1931. Gelatin silver print, 14 in. x 11 in. Zabriskie Gallery. © Ilse Bing Estate/Courtesy Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York

Guest Curator Therese Lichtenstein, Ph.D., New York-based art historian and photography scholar, has organized the exhibition, working with Frist Center Curator Katie Delmez.

The exhibition of more than 150 works, which features a preponderance of photographs but also includes films, books and period ephemera, explores the city of Paris as the literal and metaphoric base of Surrealism in the wake of the World War I. It was believed by the Surrealists that unconscious dreams, chance encounters and actions and automatism freed “pure thought,” from all constraints imposed by conscious thought, reason or morals.

The Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, TN

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Frist Center will partner  with Nashville’s Belcourt Theatre and Vanderbilt University’s International Lens and the school’s French and film departments to present a Surrealism film series which will include the classic Un Chien Andalou (The Andalusian Dog) directed by Luis Buñueland Salvador Dalí and several other rarely screened period films.

Paris was a hotbed of creative activity at the dawn of the 20th century, attracting artists and writers to its vibrant and wildly fertile art scene. Numerous galleries flourished during this period, fueling the immigration of many of the world’s most talented artists.  During the 1920s and 1930s, a number of photographers associated with Surrealism, including Man Ray, Brassaï, André Kertész, Ilse Bing and Germaine Krull, turned their lenses on the city of Paris with its dance halls, cafés and characters.  These seemingly ordinary people and places not only had social histories but also became psychologically charged “found objects.”  In exploring the city’s commonplace as well as its monuments, these photographers used unusual viewpoints, manipulative lighting techniques and innovative technical processes to expose and examine “the marvelous” in the everyday.

As Dr. Lichtenstein writes, “The images in Twilight Visions form a collection of views of various urban spaces, filled with cultural artifacts.  The viewer is invited to slowly contemplate the city—its architecture, its monuments, its public spaces and its denizens— as an ephemeral ruin, at once both of the past and the present.”

The Exhibition

Eugène Atget. Rue du Figuier, 1924. Albumen print, 9 in. x 7 in. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. by Exchange, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA.

Twilight Visions comprises five sections: images of the city at night and in the day, the transformation of well-known public monuments, the influence of Eugène Atget on the Surrealists; Parisian nightlife after hours and surreal figures.

The first section, Marvelous Encounters, includes photographs of city streets, shop windows, ordinary people and found objects that invite viewers to discover “the marvelous” in common objects and familiar places. Many of the works in this section look both familiar and strange, as subjects were photographed from unexpected angles, using dim lighting, soft focus and abstracted views to create dreamlike images.  Among the works in this section are photographs by Brassaï, Man Ray, Ilse Bing, André Kertész, Germaine Krull, Dora Maar and Joseph Breitenbach.

The second section of the exhibition, entitled Photography’s Transformation of the Monument, looks at the monuments of Paris, particularly the Eiffel Tower, to examine the ways they shape connections to past and future. Included in this section are works by André Kertész, Ilse Bing, Germaine Krull and Man Ray.  The Eiffel Tower, constructed from 1887–1889, was designed to serve as the entry to the Paris World’s Fair commemorating the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution.  The skeletal iron structure also was designed to be a radio transmitter and a beacon for commercial advertisements in the form of illuminated signs.  In 1931 Man Ray created a series of photographs that were reproduced in a portfolio by the Paris Electric Company for an advertising booklet called Èlectricité, which was used to promote personal use of electricity.  That same year, he photographed the tower at night and used the image as the basis for La Ville (The City, 1931), a multiple-exposure print and one of the images used in Èlectricité.  The Eiffel Tower, built as a utilitarian homage to the past, is transformed.  The magic of electricity makes the tower visible at night, but in so doing, renders it unstable and non-architectural.  Ray’s photograph turns the magnificent Eiffel Tower into indecipherable electrified text. In addition to Man Ray’s work, there are photographs by Ilse Bing, Georges Hugnet, André Kertész, Germaine Krull, Raoul Ubac and various postcards of the city that interrupt traditional heroic views of the monument.

Section three, entitled Looking at Atget, examines the powerful work of Eugène Atget, a photographer who was “discovered” in the 1920s by Man Ray.  Following a stint as a sailor, a brief career as an actor and an attempt at becoming a painter, he turned to photography. Working quietly and modestly, Atget documented the loss of “old” Parisian culture after the turn of the 20th century.  But in so doing, his “poetry of the everyday” also became a personal expression of nostalgia for the world that was disappearing before his lens.  His work was straightforward yet magical.  Works include Pont Neuf (1902–1903), The Wine Seller), 15 Rue Boyer (ca. 1910) and Boulevard de Strasbourg (1926).

Section four, Portraits After Hours, explores the Bohemian avant-garde culture of Paris.  In the 1920s and 1930s, the cafés and cabarets of Montparnasse and Montmartre were a part of the transition to modernity taking place in the city. The antibourgeois, often seedy places that were the comfortable haunts of Parisian artists and intellectuals were becoming tourist destinations… fetishized places of fantasy and desire. As these locales metamorphosed into tourist sites where “regular” folk could rub elbows with Parisian characters, increasingly, these locales became stage sets where the “actors” relived the past for the cameras of the tourists.  Ilse Bing’s photographs of Cancan dancers at the famed Moulin-Rouge capture the color, flourish, nostalgia and exhilaration of the dance.  Photographers represented in section four include: James Abbe, Ilse Bing, Brassaï and Man Ray.

Mutable Mirrors, the fifth section of the exhibition, investigates the subject of shifting identities that was a part of the Surrealists’ desire to alter consciousness and transform concepts of personal, social and group identity.  Issues of gender and sexuality and the roles of masquerade and play are examined in the works of Lee Miller, Nusch Eluard, Dora Maar, Claude Cahun, Raoul Ubac, Hans Bellmer, Georges Hugnet, André Kertész, Man Ray and Brassaï who experimented with techniques of doubling, distorting, multiplying and fragmenting their images.

Included in this section are André Kertesz’s Distortions (1933) a series of photographs of nude women reflected in distorting mirrors that transform them into dreamlike creatures.  The series was commissioned by the editor of the Parisian humor magazine, Le Sourire (The Smile).

About the Guest Curator

Dr. Therese Lichtenstein is author of Behind Closed Doors: The Art of Hans Bellmer (University of California Press, 2001). This book accompanied an exhibition she curated of the same title at the International Center of Photography (awarded Best Photography Exhibition of 2001 by the International Critics Association). She also curated and wrote the essay for the exhibition Andromeda Hotel: The Art of Joseph Cornell (2006).

Catalog

The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalog published by the University of California Press.  The catalog will include essays by Dr. Lichtenstein; British historian Colin Jones,  Professor of History at Queen Mary University of London and author of Paris: The Biography of a City; American art historian Whitney Chadwick, Professor

Emerita of Art History at San Francisco State University and author of Amazons in the Drawing Room: The Art of Romaine Brooks (UC Press) and Women, Art, and Society; and British art historian Julia Kelly, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester and the author of Art, Ethnography and the Life of Objects, Paris c. 1925–1935.

Exhibition Sponsors

Publix Super Markets Charities and Publix is the Sponsor of programs for Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris.

Surrealism Film Series

In conjunction with Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris, the Frist Center is partnering with Belcourt Theatre and Vanderbilt University’s International Lens and French and film departments to offer Surreal to Reel: Paris on Film. This three-part series of Surrealist and Poetic Realist films will feature artists such as Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, and Jean Vigo.

Frist Center

When: Friday, September 25th at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Frist Center for the Visual Arts
What: Un Chien Andalou; Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, and L’Atlante; Jean Vigo
Price: Free

Dudley Andrew, the R. Selden Rose Professor of Film and Comparative Literature and co-chair and director of graduate studies of film studies at Yale University, will kick-off the series with an introduction to these two films.

About the films:

Un Chien Andalou

Un Chien Andalou (The Andalusian Dog)

Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí worked collaboratively to produce this well-known and influential Surrealist film. The film follows no conventional plot, but takes the viewer through a seventeen-minute dreamlike narrative.  Scenes, such as the slicing of an eyeball with a razorblade, a young man bicycling down a calm urban street wearing what appears to be a nun’s habit and a locked box around his neck, and a couple (seemingly dead) buried in sand up to their shoulders, take viewers on a fantastical journey from the wayward minds of two important Surrealists. About their approach to the film, Buñuel said, “Our only rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted.” Directed by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, 1928, 17 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated.

Click here to view the embedded video.

L’Atalante

This Poetic Realist film begins with the marriage of a young barge captain, Jean, and a village girl, Juliette, who barely know each other. Juliette begins her married life by moving onto the barge. With only her husband for company, as well as his sailor friend named Jules, a cabin boy, and at least six cats, Juliette soon finds that she has no real place on the barge. What ensues are specific moments in the life of this newlywed couple, including an unforeseen separation, that illustrates the turbulent nature of learning to live with the one you love. L’Atalante focuses on the dream of love and presents realistic yet magical images of peasant and working class life. Directed by Jean Vigo, 1934, 89 minutes. Not Rated.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Belcourt Theatre

When: Tuesday, October 6th at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Belcourt Theatre
What: Hotel du Nord; Marcel Carnè, and Le Crime de Monsieur Lange; Jean Renoir
Price: Free

Introductions by Andrea Mirabile, assistant professor of Italian, Vanderbilt University.

About the films:

Hotel du Nord

This Poetic Realist film by Marcel Carnè opens immediately with a fantastic collision of idealism and normality. As two young lovers, Renée and Pierre, attempt to carry out a mutual suicide and are sharing one last moment of life together in one of the Hotel du Nord’s rooms, the hotel staff members are throwing a party. Pierre eventually begins to carry out the suicide pact and shoots Renée, but lacking the courage to follow through with their plan, he flees from the scene. As the film continues, the contrasts between ideas of normality versus romantic idealism develop into an incredible story of passion, adventure, rejection and the destructive powers of love.
Directed by Marcel Carnè, 1938, 95 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated

Click here to view the embedded video.

Le Crime de Monsieur Lange

In this film, Jean Renoir cleverly intertwines the common theme of good versus evil with an anti-capitalist message relevant to the political mood of his time. He does so by telling the story of a simple, hard-working group that trumps a corrupt and powerful system. As the film opens, the manager of a publishing company, Monsieur Batala, who is swollen with debt, makes one last attempt to escape the reach of his creditors by absconding with company funds. In his effort to flee his responsibilities, he fakes his death and begins playing the part of a priest. Later when one of his old employees, Monsieur Lange, and his partners start a co-operative and are wildly successful, Monsieur Batala makes a return hoping for an opportunity to reap the benefits of the groups’ talents and achievements.   Directed by Jean Renoir, 1936, 80 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated

Click here to view the embedded video.

Vanderbilt University

When: Wednesday, October 14th at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Vanderbilt University’s International Lens at Sarratt Cinema
What: L’Age d’Or; Luis Buñuel, and Under the Roofs of Paris; Rene Clair
Price: Free

Introduction by Paul Young, associate professor of English and director of film studies at Vanderbilt University

About the films:

L’Age d’Or

L’Age d’Or, which began as a collaboration between Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí (Dalí would abandon the project at an early stage), was seen by the artists as a challenge to make a film equally as bold as Un Chien Andalou. Combining Surrealism and an anti-bourgeois attitude to shocking effect, this film instigated wild protests worldwide. Though it was released in 1930, the U.S. did not have an official premier for the film until 1979. With this first solo film Buñuel made quite an impression. L’Age d’Or is said to be as disgusting as it is comic with scenes such as a father cheerfully playing with his son before shooting him a moment later and a Catholic priest and stuffed giraffe being thrown out a window. Directed by Luis Buñuel, 1930, 60 minutes. 35mm. Not Rated

Click here to view the embedded video.

Under the Roofs of Paris

Noted as one of the most successful French films of the 1930s, Under the Roofs of Paris is not only monumental for its pioneering use of sound and interesting camerawork, but for portraying Paris in a distinctive light. Using poetry and romanticism to reveal the humdrum life of poor, ordinary citizens in Paris, René Clair creates a charming atmosphere that brings the spirit of the city to life. In a working-class part of town, a love triangle develops between a young street performer named Albert, a Romanian woman named Pola, and a mobster named Louis. As this youthful and lively film develops, Clair gives viewers a unique look at Paris through the eyes of kindly working-class heroes, a realistic set, and captivating street songs.  Directed by René Clair, 1930, 96 minutes. DVD. Not Rated

Click here to view the embedded video.

Exhibition Credits

Twilight Visions: Surrealism, Photography, and Paris was organized for the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tenn., by guest curator Therese Lichtenstein, Ph.D.

About the Frist Center

The Frist Center

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., is an art exhibition center dedicated to presenting the finest visual art from local, regional, U.S. and international sources in a program of changing exhibitions. The Frist Center’s Martin ArtQuest Gallery features 21 interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and under and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and military, and $6.50 for college students with ID. Thursday and Friday evenings, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m., admission is free for college students with a valid college ID. Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling (615) 744-3246. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; and Sundays, 1:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., with the Café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling (615) 244-3340 or by visiting our Web site at www.fristcenter.org.

NASHVILLE – The work of Chuck Close, renowned as one of America’s foremost artists in any medium, will be featured in Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration, opening in the Frist Center for the Visual Arts’ Ingram Gallery June 26, 2009. The exhibition will remain on view through the summer and will close Sept. 13, 2009.

The exhibition, which includes more than 130 works, explores Close’s continuing investigation into the relationship between artistic process, vision and creativity. On view in this comprehensive survey will be prints that are widely regarded as masterworks of contemporary printmaking, as seen in such techniques as aquatint, lithography, pulp-paper multiples, direct gravure, silk screen, traditional Japanese woodcut and reduction linocut.

Chuck Close, Self Portrait I, 1999, Two Palms Press, New York, printer and publisher (Pedro Barbeito, David Lasry). Courtesy of Two Palms Press and the artist

Close is internationally renowned for creating paintings and prints on the subject of the human face. By transferring gridded sections of a photograph square by square onto the canvas or paper, he explores the relationships between the whole and its parts. Each tiny square bears an abstract mark, which functions as an expression in its own right; when seen from a distance, these parts coalesce into a shimmering whole. This transformation emphasizes the gravitas and power of the carefully observed human face.

“Inviting feelings of pleasure and awe, works in this exhibition convey the sheer bravura of an extraordinary artist and human being, one who uses art to attain a deep understanding of the nature of visual experience,” said Frist Center Chief Curator Mark Scala in describing the artist and the exhibition.

Close began printmaking as a serious part of his artistic career in 1972. This survey shows his remarkable technical skill and the wide range of expressions that arise from his explorations of extreme scale, abstract mark making, and remarkably intricate combinations of color.

Close’s paintings are the result of laborious and time-consuming effort. While they often take months to complete, his prints may take as many as two years to complete. Collaborating with some of the world’s finest printers, the artist takes an interactive, “hands on” approach to the creation of his prints, carving linoleum blocks, drawing on and applying acid to his etching plates and personally directing the intricate handwork involved in the creation of the prints. The exhibition also celebrates his collaborators, the master printers into whose hands Close commits and entrusts his work.

Chuck Close, Emma/Woodcut, 2002; Pace Editions Ink, New York, printer (Yasu Shibata), Pace Editions, Inc., New York, publisher. Courtesy of Pace Editions, Inc. and the artist.

The exhibition is divided into broad categories. The first gallery introduces visitors to the basic principles of printmaking and includes Close’s earliest prints, which set the tone for the collaborative and experimental approach that characterizes his career. As visitors move through the exhibition, they will see how Close has used the portrait as a “constant” in his career; one gallery features only self-portraits, while others focus on images of his art world contemporaries such as Philip Glass—a favorite subject for more than 30 years—Alex Katz, John Chamberlain and Lucas Samaras. These famous artists are portrayed in a range of mediums, colors and types of marks that create an astonishing encyclopedia of visual effects. Additional galleries explore Close’s pulp-paper works, various silk screen techniques and explore his work with master printmakers.

Exhibition Sponsors

The HCA Foundation on behalf of HCA and the TriStar Family of Hospitals is the exhibition’s Platinum Sponsor.

Frist Center Exhibition-Related Programs

The Martin ArtQuest Gallery will connect with one printmaking technique by giving visitors the opportunity to create a fingerprint portrait that includes a range of values and a reference to facial proportions. The medium is washable ink.

Tuesday, May 5–Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009

New Edition: College Printmakers The work of printmakers at five area colleges and universities will be featured outside the Martin ArtQuest Gallery on the Upper Level of the Frist Center in a series of rotating presentations.

New Edition Schedule

• Tue., May 5–Sun., May 31:  Austin Peay State University
• Tue., June 2–Sun., July 5:  Belmont University
• Tues., July 7–Sun., Aug. 2: Middle Tennessee State University
• Tue., Aug. 4–Sun., Aug. 30: Vanderbilt University
• Tue., Sept. 1–Sun., Oct. 4: Watkins College of Art and Design

Friday, July 17, 2009

ARTini: Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration 7:00 p.m.
Meet at the Information Desk.  Free with purchase of gallery admission

Join Shaun Giles, associate educator for outreach, as he leads an informal conversation about one or two works of art in this exhibition. Complete your evening by relaxing in the Grand Lobby with beverages from the cash bar or café and visiting with friends.

Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009 and Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009

Adult Workshop: Printmaking
Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.; Sunday: 1:00–4:00 p.m.
Frist Center Studios
$50 members; $60 non-members; cost includes all supplies and gallery admission.
Call 615.744.3247 to register.

Mary Pat Tuner, a Nashville-based artist and visual arts instructor at Lipscomb and Belmont Universities, will lead this two-day workshop in conjunction with the exhibition Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration. Participants will first tour the exhibition and discuss some of the techniques Chuck Close uses to create his prints. Participants will then move to the Frist Center studios where the discussion will continue while learning how to make linoleum block relief prints.

Friday, Aug. 7, 2009
Films at the Frist: Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
6:30 p.m.
In the Auditorium. Free and open to the public.

Join us at the Frist Center for a night of music, art, and film as the Frist Center collaborates with the Nashville Opera and the Nashville Film Festival. Get a sneak peek into the opera’s upcoming season as you listen to soprano Sabrina Warren, accompanied by Amy Tate Williams, sing an excerpt from composer Philip Glass’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Gain insight into the connections between Glass and visual artist Chuck Close, whose images of Glass, are among those included in the Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration exhibition. Top off your evening with the 2007 documentary Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts, courtesy of the Nashville Film Festival.

Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009

Gallery Talk: Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration
7:00 p.m.
Meet at the Information Desk
Free with purchase of gallery admission
Frist Center Chief Curator Mark Scala will lead a tour of this exhibition.

Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009

Curator’s Perspective: Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration
6:30 p.m.
Auditorium
Free

Join Terrie Sultan, director of the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York, and curator of Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration, for a lecture about the way Chuck Close developed his unique approach to printmaking. With illustrations, behind-the-scenes photographs, and personal anecdotes, Sultan will show how Close’s prints relate to and inform his painting practice and will also discuss the reason he says “problem solving is over-rated.”

Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009

Teen Workshop: Printmaking
10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Frist Center Studios
$40 members; $50 non-members; cost includes all supplies and gallery admission.
Call 615.744.3247 to register.

Mary Pat Tuner, a Nashville-based artist and visual arts instructor at Lipscomb and Belmont Universities, will lead this one-day workshop in conjunction with the exhibition Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration. Participants will first tour the exhibition and discuss some of the techniques Chuck Close uses to create his prints. After, they will move to the Frist Center studios where they will create their own linoleum block relief prints.

Exhibition Credits

Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration was organized by Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston. The exhibition and publication have been generously underwritten by the Neuberger Berman Foundation. Additional support was made possible by the Lannan Foundation, Jon and Mary Shirley, The Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation and Houston Endowment Inc., Jonathan and Marita Fairbanks, Dorene and Frank Herzog, Andrew and Gretchen McFarland, Carey Shuart, The Wortham Foundation, Inc., Karen and Eric Pulaski, Suzanne Slesin and Michael Steinberg and Texas Commission on the Arts.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., is an art exhibition center dedicated to presenting the finest visual art from local, regional, U.S. and international sources in a program of changing exhibitions. The Frist Center’s Martin ArtQuest Gallery features 21 interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and under and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and military, and $6.50 for college students with ID. Thursday and Friday evenings, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m., admission is free for college students with a valid college ID. Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling (615) 744-3246. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; and Sundays, 1:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., with the Café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling (615) 244-3340 or by visiting our Web site at www.fristcenter.org.

Clarence Sinclare. Bull American (1895-1979) Greta Garbo, 1931. Gelatin silver print 33 x 25.4 cm.

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts presents a special three-part photography lecture series, featuring expert speakers who will each address a different aspect of the medium. The series is presented in conjunction with the current exhibition, The Best of Photography and Film From the George Eastman House Collection. Lectures will take place Nov. 6, Nov. 20 and Dec. 11, 2008 in the Frist Center auditorium at 6:30 p.m. The series is free to the public.

Part I, Thursday, November 6: “Kingdom of Darkness, Kingdom of Light: The Invention of Photography and Victorian Culture”

Most people don’t associate photography with the Victorian era, yet it was during this period-in 1839-that the medium of photography was introduced. Guest speaker Morna O’Neil, Mellon assistant professor of 19th century European art at Vanderbilt University, discusses the extraordinary proliferation of photography in the Victorian era, including Victorian photographs featured in the George Eastman House exhibition.

Joe Rosenthal. American (1911-2006). OLD GLORY GOES UP MT. SUIBACHI, IWO JIMA 1945. Gelatin silver print 34.5 x 26.7 cm. Gift of Associated Press

Part II, Thursday, November 20: “Is the Medium the Message?”

In 1964, Marshall McLuhan declared that the “medium is the message.” Susan H. Edwards, Ph.D., executive director and CEO of the Frist Center and photography scholar, examines his claims in the context of the history of photography.  She discusses how images produced by photochemical processes immediately altered perceptions of time and space. Her talk confirms that the medium of photography changed the course of police work, medicine, journalism, the visual arts and material culture. In the digital age, even the social consequences of photography are changing. What is the message of this medium? How is the digital divide changing society?

Part III: Thursday, December 11: “Civil War Photography”

Guest speaker Brooks Johnson, consultant to the Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, Va.), explores the work of photographers of the Civil War and iconic photographs on view in The Best of Photography and Film from the George Eastman House Collection. In addition, he explains the various photographic techniques used during this time period.

William Wegman, American (b. 1942) IN 1993. Color print, internal dye diffusion transfer (Polacolor) print. 65.5 x 52.2 cm.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., is an art exhibition center dedicated to presenting the finest visual art from local, regional, U.S. and international sources in a program of changing exhibitions. The Frist Center’s Martin ArtQuest Gallery features more than 30 interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and younger and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and military and $6.50 for college students with ID. Thursday evenings, 5-9 p.m., admission is free for college students with a valid college ID. Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling 615.744.3246. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays, and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. and Sundays, 1-5:30 p.m., with the Frist Center Café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling 615.244.3340 or by visiting our Web site at www.fristcenter.org <http://www.fristcenter.org/>.

Rodin's classic tribute to love: The Kiss, from his epic The Gates of Hell.

At the peak of his career, Auguste Rodin was regarded as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo.

Devotees of classic art are in for a very early holiday gift in September, courtesy of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, which will showcase a stunning exhibition of the work of Auguste Rodin.

Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, a collection from the the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, is the upcoming retrospective of Rodin. Among the 60 pieces in this exhibit are casts of The Thinker (circa 1880) and The Kiss (1881-82), both drawn from his classic The Gates of Hell. The exhibit opens September 12th in Nashville and will run through January 4, 2009.

The body of work by Rodin (1840-1917) “illustrates the artist’s innovative contributions to modern sculpture. This exhibit spans the length of Rodin’s career. He devised his own expressive language, conveying the vitality of the human spirit through a vigorous modeling technique that emphasized his personal response to the subject.

Linking the French academic tradition, which idealized the human form, with the experimental ethos of modernism, Rodin frequently achieved a dynamic interplay between stasis and movement. In many of his sculptures tension is created by contrasting highly refined aspects of human anatomy and areas of unfinished clay or marble, an approach he admired in certain of Michelangelo’s works. Rodin’s reputation as the leading sculptor of his time led to such major commissions as The Gates of Hell (1880–ca. 1900), Burghers of Calais (1884), and Monument to Honoré de Balzac (1897).

“This exhibition is a wonderful follow-up to Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art, shown earlier this year at the Frist Center. That exhibition featured several major works by Rodin, showing him in the context of burgeoning modernism in late 19th century.

“A Magnificent Obsession enables visitors to explore his genius in far greater depth, to understand the sources and concepts that inspired Rodin’s passionate outlook on life, which may in turn inspire us as it has so many people around the world.” — Mark Scala, chief curator at the Frist Center

A Bit of History: The early work of Rodin

In his teens, Rodin attended the government school for craft and design, where he learned to draw plaster casts of ancient sculpture and to model in clay. Although he sought admission to the prestigious École des Beaux Arts, he was rejected three times. Rodin’s struggle for recognition dominated his early career. During the 1860s Rodin submitted his work to the annual juried Paris Salon exhibitions—the most important shows of their day—but suffered a series of rejections. In 1877 his work was finally admitted to the Salon. Significant early works, such as Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose (1863–64) and Bust of Jean-Baptiste Rodin (1860), Rodin’s earliest portrait and first known sculpture of his father, are included in the exhibition.

Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, Modeled 1880, reduced in 1903. Cast number and date of cast unknown, Alexis Rudier Foundry. Bronze, 14 ¾ x 7 ⅞ x 11 ⅜ in. Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, promised gift to the North Carolina Museum of Art

The Gates of Hell

During Rodin’s time, the most highly regarded sculptures were projects created for public places, because they were thought to have universal rather than personal meaning. Rodin received his first public commission in 1880 to create a sculptural entrance for a new museum of decorative arts in Paris, which ultimately was never built.

The Gates of Hell (1880–ca. 1900) featured hundreds of figures modeled in low to high relief and in the round. The imagery was inspired by Dante Alighieri’s (1265–1321) Inferno, which was part of The Divine Comedy—an epic poem written about 1308 that depicted the author’s fictional journey through Hell and Purgatory to Paradise. Rodin’s environment of tormented souls represents not only the underworld but also the suffering of humankind in general.

Rodin made many of the figures originally modeled for The Gates of Hell into freestanding, independent sculptures, often either reducing or enlarging them. When separated from the original The Gates of Hell, these works achieved new meanings. Among the most well known of these independent pieces are The Thinker (1880), The Kiss (ca. 1881–82), and The Three Shades (1880–1904), each on view in the exhibition. This practice of using fragments or sections from one project in multiple ways and producing them in various sizes was part of Rodin’s creative method from 1880 onward.

Auguste Rodin: Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose. Modeled 1863–64, Musée Rodin cast 3/12 in 1978, Coubertin Foundry. Bronze, 12 ½ x 7 ¼ x 6 in. Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, promised gift to the North Carolina Museum of Art

Lost-Wax Casting Process

This portion of the exhibition provides visitors with a step-by-step view of the lost-wax casting process, the most common casting method used through the centuries for all kinds of bronze objects. It allows the artist to reproduce the delicate nuances of an original clay, plaster or wax model.

Studies for Monuments to Balzac and Burghers of Calais

The Monument to Honoré de Balzac: In 1891 Rodin was commissioned by the Societé des Gens de Lettres (Society of Men of Letters) to create a monument to Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), one of France’s most influential yet controversial writers. For the next seven years Rodin struggled to find an accurate physical portrayal of Balzac that would also symbolize the writer’s creative genius.

Since Balzac had been dead for 40 years, Rodin also faced the challenge of rendering a likeness of a man he had never seen. He consulted photographs, a process in its infancy in Balzac’s time, and conducted other research. During his attempts to achieve a compelling likeness of Balzac, Rodin completed at least 50 studies; some convey the writer’s actual appearance while others are more subjective and abstract.

In 1898 Rodin presented the final plan for the Balzac commission to the public. The nine-foot plaster model, highly modern in its abstraction, was met with outrage, disbelief, and ridicule; as a result the literary society would not accept it. Deeply hurt by the criticism, Rodin refused to allow the sculpture to be cast during his lifetime.
Burghers of Calais (1884–1888): Commissioned by the French city of Calais, this monument represents an event that occurred there in 1347, during the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453). Six leading citizens volunteered themselves for execution by the English in exchange for their lifting an 11-month siege of their city.

La Porte de l'Enfer (translated The Gates of Hell) is a monumental sculptural group work by French artist Auguste Rodin that depicts a scene from "The Inferno", the first section of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. It stands at 6 m high, 4 m wide and 1 m deep (19.69'H × 13.12'W × 3.29'D) and contains 180 figures. The figures range from 15 cm high up to more than one metre. Several of the figures were also cast independently by Rodin.

Rodin was asked to commemorate this event by designing a monument for the town square. He completed many studies before deciding on his final version. He modeled the figures nude before clothing them for the final version. Later he continued to work with these figures, creating enlargements and reductions, and incorporating partial figures into other compositions.

Rodin’s final version defied French artistic traditions for portraying heroism. Instead of depicting these citizens as lofty and selfless, the artist showed each at the moment he realized the limits of his own resolve to sacrifice himself. The figures are barefoot, wearing sackcloth, and their individual responses to their plight are evident in their various tormented or despondent poses and gestures. Rodin’s shift from a focus on triumphant glory to human suffering changed the form and meaning of the public monument as it was known at the time.

The exhibition features several studies of individual figures and heads and an early maquette of the monument.

Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession also features portraits, maquettes, partial figures and hands by the artist. Supplemental items including works on paper, photographs, portraits of the artist and a film about The Gates of Hell (at left) are on view as well.

Related Exhibition

Rodin was a significant influence on a number of photographers who rose to prominence shortly after the turn of the 20th century, including Edward Steichen (1879–1973) and Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), both of whom are represented in The Best of Photography and Film from The George Eastman House Collection, an exhibition on view this fall at the Frist Center. Call 615.744.3247 to register for this workshop.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., is an art exhibition center dedicated to presenting the finest visual art from local, regional, U.S. and international sources in a program of changing exhibitions. The Frist Center’s Martin ArtQuest Gallery features more than 30 interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and younger and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and military and $6.50 for college students with ID. Thursday evenings, 5–9 p.m., admission is free for college students with a valid college ID. Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling 615.744.3246. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays, and Saturdays, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. and Sundays, 1–5:30 p.m., with the Frist Center Café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling 615.244.3340 or by visiting our Web site at www.fristcenter.org.

The artists and their works were selected by a juried panel from more than 400 submissions. The works featured in the exhibition have an expressive force and sense of beauty that transcend any limitations that might be imposed by their makers’ disabilities. The artists’ personal circumstances often inform their art, as well as their chosen media. Some of the works explore an artist’s daily struggles of living with a disability; others convey a positive outlook, rich with vitality and raw energy that is often achieved through the use of bright, bold color. Intertwining themes of strength, resilience, fragility, contentment and endurance can be seen throughout this exhibition. Though each work stands on its own artistic merit, the individual stories of their creators make the art even more engaging and awe inspiring.

“The works in The Artist’s Voice are a testament to the power of art to eliminate barriers as it offers healing, strength, and encouragement to its creators, while giving voice to the varied lives of these resilient artists. The artwork provides a visual language that broadens our own understanding as well, not only of people with disabilities, but also of our connections with each other and the world.” ~~ Anne Henderson, director of education at the Frist Center

The artists in this exhibition are motivated to make art for many reasons. Some use the creative process as a means of coming to terms with their particular situations and the world, while others use art as an escape from it. All of the artists attest to the therapeutic value of art and maintain that creating it assists them in their personal efforts to heal, live, and flourish in the world at large.

An example of this transformative power of creativity is seen in the work by residents of the Clover Bottom Developmental Center. Many of the non-verbal residents, as well as those facing other communication challenges, respond to color, shape and texture. Their intricate sculptures, which are made of wood with polymer clay or brightly colored felt, are testimony to the idea that art offers vision and voice to the silent and misunderstood.

For Lyrica Marquez, an artist with autism who usually relies on her mother’s support and assisted typing to communicate, the act of painting benefits her in the same way sculpture benefits the Clover Bottom residents. “In art, I am free to lose my disability over [to] the ways that the colors and lines flow from a soul’s expression,” writes Marquez in her artist’s statement. “It frees the ‘me’ who has no spoken words, only color and form as my own independent language. My art gives me a home in an otherwise hard-to-fit-in world.”

Selection Process

Last summer, the Frist Center announced a statewide Call for Works to receive entries for this exhibition, open to Tennessee artists ages 18 years and older who have physical, cognitive or mental disabilities (a disability is defined as an impairment that substantially limits a major life activity). Submissions were reviewed and chosen by a selection panel that included Donna Glassford, director of the department of cultural enrichment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Carol Mode, Nashville-based artist and Frist Center artist council member; and Mark Scala, chief curator of the Frist Center.

In advance of the exhibition, the Frist Center collaborated with VSA arts of Tennessee and Full Circle Art to provide free workshops across the state for artists. Participants learned how to create professional portfolios, write artists statements and photograph work for submission to juried art exhibitions.

Advisory Committee and Sponsors

An advisory committee assisted the Frist Center in the process of organizing this exhibition. Participants included individual artists and community members with and without disabilities and representatives from the following organizations: Centerstone, Full Circle Art, Pacesetters, Inc., Technology Access Center, Tennessee Arts Commission, Tennessee Disability Coalition, Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and VSA arts of Tennessee.

The Artist’s Voice is sponsored by HCA and the TriStar Family of Hospitals. This project is also supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. This exhibition was organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. Susie Creagh Elder, former educator for outreach at the Frist Center, is the guest curator for the exhibition.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn. The Frist Center’s Martin ArtQuest Gallery features more than 30 interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and younger and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and military and $6.50 for college students with ID. Thursday evenings, 5–9 p.m., admission is free for college students with a valid college ID. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays, and Saturdays, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.– 9 p.m. and Sundays, 1–5:30 p.m.. Additional information is available by calling 615.244.3340.

Kell Black,Drawing for Boys (Crash), ca. 2002, Charcoal, graphite, and olive oil on paper, 8 ¼ x 10 3/4 [Courtesy of the artist}

The work was conceived to counter the exhibition, “Color as Field: American Painting 1950-75,” in which form and content are unified through the broad application of brightly colored areas of paint. Artwork in “Shades of Gray” includes gray, white and black, with the picture plane suggesting spatial ambiguity, mystery and personal and social narratives.

In creating his aviation-themed drawings, Kell Black (whose work was first seen at the Frist Center in the Art of Tennessee exhibition in 2003) employs unconventional techniques to reproduce the sensation of natural forces such as clouds, smoke, sunlight and shadow.

At left, Kell Black, Drawing for Boys (Dog Fight), ca. 2002, Charcoal, graphite, and olive oil on paper, 10 ¾ x 8 ¼ [Courtesy of the artist]

The surfaces of the larger works are animated by loosely applied charcoal, ghostly erasures, areas darkened by acetone and even holes in the paper where Black placed the works on a pebble driveway and ran an electric sander over them. Once he has established the atmosphere of these drawings, Black often evokes a sense of impending threat or loss by rendering zeppelins or airplanes as if suspended in their stormy surroundings. In the smaller works, Black combines charcoal with olive oil to evoke the fading photographs of early aviation history, while also suggesting the way forms emerge out of, and melt back into, the fog of memory.

On Friday, August 22, at 7 p.m., Black will lead an informal conversation (included with gallery admission) about some of his work presented in the exhibition Shades of Gray: Four Artists of the Southeast. Visitors may also enjoy music in the Grand Lobby, martinis, wine and other beverages at the cash bar and visiting with friends.

In addition to Black, the other three artists in the exhibition are Sue Mulcahy from Volunteer State Community College, Gallatin; Jane Allen Nodine, University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg, S.C.; and Carol Prusa, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Fla.

To Sue Mulcahy, the materialism of contemporary culture limits the individual’s capacity to fully enter the natural flow of life. Emphasizing the value of intangible experiences, her abstract charcoal drawings are, in her words, “spontaneous reflections exploring the spirit of nature; listening to nature in an attempt to tease out her textures, moods, rhythms and compositions.”

Mulcahy begins each work by loosely applying charcoal to the paper with no pre-established image in mind. Using her fingers and various drawing tools, she then manipulates the charcoal, adding dark gestures, patterns or shapes to some areas, and in others removing the charcoal (often with a vacuum cleaner) to suggest the play of light over mysterious patches of shadow. Throughout this process, Mulcahy remains alert to visual surprises that might unexpectedly take her drawings in new and interesting directions. In her finished works, forms that appear to be only partially coalesced emphasize the importance for Mulcahy of becoming rather than being, transition over resolution.

The primary medium in Carol Prusa’s drawings is silverpoint—the same drawing tool used by old masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer—which produces a line of great subtlety and luminosity. Her works evoke other art historical aspects as well, from botanical, anatomical and cosmological diagrams to Baroque furniture design and Celtic knots. Prusa’s frequent use of a circular or hemispheric format emphasizes the integration of the microcosm and macrocosm. This relates them to the tradition of the mandala, which in Hinduism and Buddhism is a circular diagramming of the cosmos and all that it contains.

Prusa’s repetitive sequences of organic patterns allude to mathematics, a field of study she views as the best means of exploring and articulating the universe’s ultimate adherence to definable principles. Yet Prusa does not necessarily deduce an ordered human destiny that abides by the rules of logic. She recognizes that beyond the bounds of reason lies mystery. With their sense of fading and distressed surfaces, her drawings are elegies of vulnerability and loss.

As icons of domesticity and commerce, Jane Allen Nodine’s tightly cropped images of men’s shirts evoke both the people who wear them and those who manufacture, sell, clean and fold them. As expressions of her wish to project transcendent meaning onto everyday ritual, she writes that her works “evoke memories associated with specific activities or events related to such items of apparel. The ephemeral qualities of fabric, such as staining, tearing and wrinkling, must constantly be managed through washing, cleaning, ironing and folding. The cycle of attempted control over the fabric, garment shapes and wear-ability … serve[s] as a metaphor for daily struggles that seem repetitive and cyclical.”

The ghostly human presence implied by Nodine’s shirts has precedents in Dadaism and Pop art, in which everyday objects are used or reproduced to stand in for the person who would use the object. In the Vesture series, the subtle accumulation of densely layered marks suggests a reflective relationship between the artist and the person for whom the shirt functions as a surrogate. In contrast, in the Camice series, the marks are graffiti-like and free form, independent of the restrictive geometry of the shirts’ folds, collars and borders.

All four artists are members of the Southeastern College Art Conference, an organization of art faculty who promote the importance of art in higher education and in the community.

At the Frist Center, Sunday, August 17 is Family Day, with free admission from 1-5:30 p.m. Family and friends will enjoy a fun-filled day of excitement of special art making activities, live music and dance performances. Check out the large, breathtaking canvases of the Color As Field: American Painting, 1950–1975 exhibition and the black, white and gray drawings featured in Shades of Gray: Four Artists of the Southeast. Head upstairs to experience the exquisite display of many of the lamps and stained glass of Louis Comfort Tiffany in the exhibition Tiffany By Design.

The Frist Center for Visual Arts is accredited by the American Association of Museums. The Frist Centeri s located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, The Frist Center’s Martin ArtQuest Gallery features more than 30 interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and younger and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and military and $6.50 for college students with ID. Thursday evenings, 5–9 p.m., admission is free for college students with a valid college ID. Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling 615.744.3246. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays, and Saturdays, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. and Sundays, 1–5:30 p.m., with the Frist Center Café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling 615.244.3340 or by visiting our Web site at www.fristcenter.org.

Daytrips and Weekenders. As the summer months and the vacation/travel season approaches, we offer you, our readers, ideas for day trips and weekend excursions to places and events that can be done in a day, or maxed out over a weekend. Time and the high cost of gas fuel our efforts to find local or regional entertainment and activities. This column will appear each Thursday through Labor Day.

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts’ exhibition “Tiffany by Design” , which opened in May, continues to attract crowds interested in the art and artistry of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The exhibition features Upper-Level Galleries. This exhibition, which showcases 40 beautifully crafted Tiffany glass lamps, celebrates the craftsmanship of the colorful leaded glass lamps produced by Tiffany Studios between 1900 and 1918. Tiffany by Design will continue through Aug. 24, 2008.

Tiffany by Design examines the beautiful design and complex fabrication of 40 lamps, including chandeliers and desk, library and hanging lamps, created by craftsmen in Tiffany Studios in New York under the direction of Louis Comfort Tiffany from 1902–1932. (At left, the famous and familiar ‘Dragonfly’ lamp). The exhibition examines every aspect of the lamps—from the beautifully crafted bronze bases and finials to the radiant colors of the leaded glass shades—to reveal what makes these designs so extraordinary. Visitors will learn how to recognize the hallmarks of a Tiffany lamp, including the deep rich color, the elegant design and motifs and the superior craftsmanship.

The exhibition also presents new evidence for the vital role of women in the Tiffany firm. Recently discovered letters show that Clara Driscoll, a longtime Tiffany Studios employee, designed some of the most iconic Tiffany lampshades. Without diminishing Tiffany’s own reputation, the exhibition endeavors to show that his artistic vision served as the inspiration and guide for all the artists and artisans who worked for him.

Tiffany by Design features works from The Neustadt Collection. Dr. Egon Neustadt and his wife, Hildegard, began their collection with the purchase of one lamp in 1935. For the next five decades, they assembled an extensive collection of Tiffany lamps and glass. In 1970, Dr. Neustadt published The Lamps of Tiffany, which remains a standard reference on the range of styles, designs and colors of the lamps and glass created at Tiffany Studios.

“In terms of the variety, number and quality of Tiffany lamps, few museums anywhere in the world can compare with The Neustadt Collection. This exhibition is able to demonstrate precisely what sets Tiffany lamps apart from the imitations found in so many antique shops.” ~~ Trinita Kennedy, associate curator at the Frist Center

Signature pieces featured in Tiffany by Design include Dragonfly Library Lamp (1905–1910); Favrilefabrique Reading Lamp (ca. 1915); Daffodil Library Lamp (1900–1910); Turtleback Chandelier (ca. 1905); Lotus Pagoda Library Lamp (1895–1900); Peony Library Lamp (1905–1910) and Pond Lily Library Lamp (1900–1910).

Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios

Based in New York City, Tiffany Studios (1902–1932) employed hundreds of master craftsmen and other skilled workers in the production of a complete range of decorative objects, including blown glass, leaded glass windows, mosaics, lamps, metalwork, enamels and ceramics. Louis Comfort Tiffany was the creative force behind this large enterprise. His personal aesthetic and artistic vision is evident in every object made at Tiffany Studios. Tiffany windows, lamps and metalwork reflect his sense of beauty and color and love of rich materials. His interest in nature and enthusiasm for the decorative potential of glass, metal and other media served as inspiration to the craftsmen and the designers who worked for him. Tiffany’s style was influenced by the underlying geometry of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the sinuous curves and organic themes of Art Nouveau. Craftsmanship was paramount: no detail was too small, no process too complex.

Tiffany Studios produced thousands of lamps in hundreds of designs, although many of them were closely related. Examining the ways the designs and the forms were altered from object to object reveals much about the aesthetic vocabulary of Tiffany Studios. The wide range of possibilities becomes evident through a consideration of a single design, which might be realized in varying color schemes or adapted through the use of different shapes and sizes of glass. Each piece of glass was selected and cut from a larger sheet, which was itself unique. Add to this the diversity of Tiffany’s lamp bases, and it is safe to say that no two Tiffany lamps are identical.

Tiffany by Design is sponsored by SunTrust. The hospitality sponsor is Union Station. This exhibition is organized by The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, Long Island City, New York. Nina Gray is the curator of the exhibition and the author of the exhibition catalog.

Related Programs

Saturday 21 and 28: Frist Center Kids Club: 1–2:30 p.m. Inspired by Tiffany meets in the Upper-Level Foyer. This program is free. Call 615.744.3357 to reserve a space. Designed for 5–10 year olds, the Frist Center Kids Club offers exciting opportunities for children to discover, explore and create art. Free membership includes a Kids Club card, rewards for participation, and a variety of hands-on activities in the art studios and the Martin ArtQuest Gallery. Featured activity: Using decorative, semi-transparent paper, design your own paper version of Tiffany-style stained glass. 2008 Kids Club Sponsor: Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, The Pruett Financial Group.

Thursday, June 26 Gallery Talk: Tiffany by Design at 7 p.m. Participants should meet at the Information Desk. Free with purchase of gallery admission. Join Trinita Kennedy, associate curator at the Frist Center, for a tour of this exhibition. Complete your evening with music in the Grand Lobby, wine or other beverages at the cash bar, and visiting with friends.

Sunday, June 29 Curator’s Perspective: “A Quest of Beauty: The Art. The work of Louis Comfort Tiffany and The Collection of Auditorium Dr. Egon Neustadt”. This program is free. Louis Comfort Tiffany’s life was dominated by his self-proclaimed “quest of beauty.” Captivated by color and transfixed by the splendor of the natural world, Tiffany spent his career translating the beauty around him into spectacular works of art. Join Lindsy R. Parrott, manager and curator of The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in Long Island City, New York, for an overview of Tiffany’s career and artistic works, with a special look the world-renown collection of lamps and glass amassed by early Tiffany collector Dr. Egon Neustadt.

Saturday, August 2 and August 3 Adult Stained Glass Workshop: 10 a.m.–4 p.m. at the Frist Center Studios. $40 for Frist Center Members; $45 for non-members. Call 615.744.3247 to register for this two-day workshop. Sam Simms, a Nashville-based glass artist leads a two-day workshop in conjunction with Tiffany by Design. Participants learn the basics of stained glass construction using the copper foil method. Each participant makes a stained glass creation to take home.

Sunday, August 17 Family Day from 1 p.m.–5:30 p.m. Free admission for all visitors. Call 615.244.3340 for information .Enjoy a fun-filled day of exciting art activities, live concerts and theatrical performances with friends and family! In addition to viewing the exhibitions on view—Color As Field: American Painting, 1950–1975, Shades of Gray: Four Artists of the Southeast and Tiffany by Design—visitors may participate in hands-on studio art activities that relate to the exhibitions.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, TN., is an art exhibition center dedicated to presenting the finest visual art from local, regional, U.S. and international sources in a program of changing exhibitions. The Frist Center’s Martin ArtQuest Gallery features more than 30 interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and younger and to Frist Center members. Frist Center admission is $8.50 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and military and $6.50 for college students with ID. Thursday evenings, 5–9 p.m., admission is free for college students with a valid college ID. Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling 615.744.3246. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays, and Saturdays, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. and Sundays, 1–5:30 p.m., with the Frist Center Café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling 615.244.3340 or by visiting our Web site at www.fristcenter.org.