Missoni is one of the leading and most distinctive fashion houses in the world. The Missoni style has evolved out of a long-standing collaboration between the husband and wife team of Ottavio and Rosita Missoni. In the late 1940s, Ottavio Missoni established a workshop producing jersey tracksuits that were sported by the Italian Athletic Team at the 1948 London Olympics, where Ottavio himself qualified for the final of the 400m hurdle race. On view at the Estorick Collection through 20 September, 2009.

Tancredi (1927-64) - Untitled (Greenhouses), 1953 The Estorick Collection

While in London he met Rosita Jelmini, the granddaughter of a family of shawl and ladieswear manufacturers from Varese, in northern Italy. After marrying in 1953 they began making items of knitwear in a small workshop in the basement of their first home in Gallarate before moving, in the late 1960s, to the company’s present site in Sumirago with its magnificent views of the Monte Rosa mountains. Through the years, Ottavio and Rosita’s path has been followed by their children Vittorio, Angela and Luca, who today continue to keep alive the spirit of the Missoni style all over the world.

The Missonis’ designs were inspired both by the natural environment and by their own collection of art from Europe’s Modernist era including the work of Tancredi, Sonia Delaunay, Giacomo Balla and Gino Severini, whose dynamic images of dancers reveal close parallels with the geometric patterns of Missoni fabrics. This is clearly illustrated in their designs for the catwalk - the exhibition includes over twenty outfits spanning the first forty years of their fashion output - and their ‘extra-curricular’ creative activities such as Ottavio’s works of collage and patchwork, examples of which are also on view.

The Futurists’ belief that all aspects of life should be elevated from serving a merely functional role to being a vehicle for the highest artistic aspirations led to their increasing interest in clothing during the 1920s and ’30s. This has clear resonances with the Missoni aesthetic and has led, in the words of fashion journalist Maria Pezzi (1979), to their creation of ‘museum pieces that can nevertheless be worn’.

The exhibition is curated by Luca Missoni. It is accompanied by The Black and White of Colour, a thirty-minute documentary profile produced by Maggie Norden of the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.

Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
39a Canonbury Square London N1 2AN
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7704 9522
Fax: +44 (0)20 7704 9531
Email: info@estorickcollection.com

www.estorickcollection.com/home.php

Carl Gustav Carus (1789-1869), who lived in Dresden from 1814 until his death, was not only an important artist – he was a Renaissance man in the true sense of the word and an outstanding representative of the intellectual and scientific life of his day. A physician, natural philosopher, man of letters, painter and draughtsman, Carl Gustav Carus occupies a special place in the intellectual spectrum of the early 19th century, spanning art, science and the philosophy of nature. His view of nature and the world was influenced by Friedrich Schelling, the naturalist and philosopher Lorenz Oken, Alexander von Humboldt, and above all by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, with whom he kept up a lively correspondence. His work creates close links between physics and metaphysics; nature and culture; science, art and life; body and soul; health and sickness; birth and death. Throughout his life and with amazing energy and boundless intellectual curiosity, Carus moved between the poles of art and science, alternating between the “Romantic” attempt to conceive of the mind and nature as a universal principle, and the aim of exploring and describing them positivistically in all their facets. The title of the exhibition, “Nature and Idea”, harks back to Carus’ book of the same name from 1861, in which he attempts to anchor the natural sciences in philosophy, and reflects the tension between positivism and idealism that runs through Carus’ entire body of work.

Carl Gustav Carus (1789-1869), Die Dreisteine in Riesengebirge, 1826. Ol auf Leinwand, 64 X 92.5 cm. GNM, Inv.-Nr. 2215 G. © Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Photo: Gerhard Reinhold

The exhibition features approximately 250 of Carus’ own paintings and drawings as well as 50 outstanding works of art by his contemporaries Caspar David Friedrich, Johan Christian Dahl, August Heinrich, Pierre Jean David d’Angers and Ernst Rietschel. Most of the artworks shown derive from the collections of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, which has the most extensive publicly owned collection of Carus’ work. The Kupferstich-Kabinett has over 700 of his drawings and prints in its collections, and the Galerie Neue Meister holds 22 of his paintings, including some of the finest examples of the Dresden school of Romantic painting.

Besides the works of art featured, the exhibition encompasses scientific illustrations, letters, literary work and writings on science and art theory by Carus and others.

It also includes approximately 30 exhibits from Carus’ extensive collection of skulls and plaster casts, which are now part of the anthropological collections of the Dresdner Völkerkundemuseum (Dresden Museum of Ethnology) and the anatomical teaching collection at the University of Leipzig’s Faculty of Medicine. Medical instruments and anatomical and natural history specimens are also on display. The exhibition incorporates loans from around 60 private and public collections.

The exhibition is divided between two locations: the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in the Semperbau am Zwinger and the Kupferstich-Kabinett in the Residenzschloss. It is organised thematically rather than chronologically or according to genre.

Semperbau, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
- Carus the man and Carus the physician
- Carus’ world in Dresden and Pillnitz; travels to the island of Rügen and to Italy
- Poetry and artistic history in Carus’ work
- Carus’ personal relationships to important contemporaries such as Goethe, Alexander von Humboldt, Caspar David Friedrich, Ludwig Tieck, Lorenz Oken and King John of Saxony.

Residenzschloss, Kupferstich-Kabinett
- Geognostic landscapes
- Nature studies and late charcoal drawings
- Zootomy, comparative anatomy and physiology
- Cranioscopy and constitutional theory

Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Residenzschloss
Taschenberg 2
D 01067 Dresden

www.skd-dresden.de

In May 2009, the Museum debuted an ambitious reinstallation of several permanent collection galleries on its second-floor. The newly hung galleries present more than 150 photographs from the Museum’s extensive photography collection. The exhibition, CAMERA WORK: Photography from the Permanent Collection, takes its name from the pioneering magazine Camera Work, published by visionary photographer and galleryist Alfred Stieglitz from 1903 to 1917. The magazine championed the idea that photography was indeed art.

O. Winston Link (American, born Brooklyn NY 1914-2001), Hot Shot Eastbound at the Iaeger Drive-In, August 2, 1956 , gelatin silver print, printed in 1995,16 x 20 inches. Boca Raton Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2007.5.100. Bequest of Isadore and Kelly Friedman

The Museum’s new photography installation will include several early photographs in the collection by modernist pioneers which were published in Camera Work. As with Stieglitz’s Camera Work a century ago, a deliberate effort has been made in this exhibition to mix familiar and lesser-known photographers, styles of work, and a variety of processes in order to explore ideas about the influence of photographic culture during the last century.

Through this reinstallation of the Museum’s permanent collection photography galleries, the Museum reveals something of the nature of photography’s history, its traditions and its possibilities. Because of the commonplaceness of photography, it has had slow acceptance as a rarified art form. Only in the last quarter-century has photography begun to hold its place among the visual arts.

Camera Work covers the history of photography with anonymous daguerreotypes, delicate albumen prints, antiquated glass lanternslides, glorious silver prints by important twentieth century photographers and contemporary color-saturated prints.

Images currently on view include:

• GENERAL HISTORY with works by William Henry Fox Talbot; Platt Babbitt; Freres Bisson; Eugène Atget; daguerreotypes, albumen prints, lantern slides, historical works key to setting a framework for the century to come

• SOCIAL AND DOCUMENTARY images by New Deal FSA and WPA photographers Marion Post Wolcott and Dorothea Lange; Margaret Bourke-White; Walker Evans; child labor and immigrant worker images by Lewis Hine; Berenice Abbott’s New York; Bill Brandt’s London; and the Paris of Ilse Bing, Brassaï and Doisneau

• MODERNISTS BETWEEN THE WARS such as Man Ray, Paul Strand, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, Andreas Feininger, and experimental Steichen

• CONTEMPORARY PLURALIST DIRECTIONS with a wide range of works by eminent 20th century and contemporary photographers such as Robert Frank, Helmut Newton, Lee Friedlander, Mary Ellen Mark, Garry Winogrand, William Christenberry, and Jerry Uelsmann, as well as contemporary conceptual images by Olaf Breuning, and the staged fictions of Patrick Nagatani and Gregory Crewdson.

Also on display in the photography galleries are historic cameras from the Museum’s Prigozy Photographic Collection, a gift from the International Center of Photography, New York, which comprises more than 250 cameras and related photographic equipment spanning the history of the camera from nineteenth century bellows and plate cameras, to early twentieth century box, pocket, and folding cameras, as well as early movie cameras.

CAMERA WORK: Photography from the Permanent Collection will continue in the permanent collection galleries for two years. Because of the fragility of many works, and photography’s sensitivity to light, periodic changes to the photography galleries will take place, allowing works to rotate off exhibition and to “rest.” Visitors are encouraged to visit the second floor permanent collection galleries for new additions on each visit to the Museum.

Numbering more than 1500 images, the Museum’s photography collections represent a veritable textbook of nineteenth and twentieth century works spanning the history of the medium. From early processes to large contemporary works, the collection demonstrates the range of photographic media from documentary to conceptual.

The Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 10am – 5pm and Saturday and Sunday 12pm – 5pm. Museum closed to public Mondays, Tuesdays and holidays. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for senior citizens (65 and older), $4 per person for group tours and $4 for students.

For more information call 561.392.2500 or visit www.bocamuseum.org.

The Everson Museum of Art is proud to announce a major gift from the Syracuse China Corp., consisting of examples of china dating back to the mid 19th century, will be joining its permanent collection. This gift consists of 275 pieces of ceramics representing many eras and styles.

For the past 138 years, Syracuse China has played a significant role in both the Syracuse community and the ceramic industry. The archived historical collection of Syracuse China has been a treasured part of the company and a source of pride to its employees through the years. The collection not only provides an extraordinary account of the history of the company but also that of Central New York , our country and ceramics in general. The Everson is proud to receive a portion of this significant collection.

”Syracuse China, its employees and products have been great ambassadors for Syracuse, Onondaga County and Central New York over the years as the collection depicts,” said Ken Boerger, Vice President and Treasurer, Libbey Inc. “It is our hope that the entire community can continue to benefit from this history going forward. It is with great pride that we offer a portion of this collection to the Everson Museum , so that a part of Syracuse China always remains in Syracuse .”

A selection from the Syracuse China collection will be on view in late August at the Everson. In addition, the entire collection will be accessible in on the Everson’s website, everson.org, later this year.

Everson Museum of Ar
401 Harrison Street, Syracuse, NY 13202

www.everson.org

This summer, Chicago artists engage audiences in a dynamic five-week series of multidisciplinary performances that involve the rituals of animal husbandry; family squabbles broadcast via laser beams; and the Web 2.0 version of San Francisco’s 1967 “Summer of Love.” Here/Not There presents five weekly performances, beginning each Tuesday, from June 30 through August 2, 2009 at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago. Artifacts and documentation from each performance are on exhibit in the gallery for the duration of the week to demonstrate how performance and visual art may coexist and compliment one another.

Week One (June 30 - July 5) - Katrina Chamberlin and James Kubie: The Body Parlor
Live performance: June 30 from 7-8 pm; July 4 from noon - 2 pm
Rituals of animal husbandry are re-enacted and their relationship to present society is examined. Ten actors disguised as laborers and sheep re-enact milking, skinning, and slaughtering to portray a sense of survival within a community. Milk is collected in pails; wool socks are removed from the actors’ (sheep) feet and their feet are washed with milk and lye soap made from sheep fat; and neck hair is shaved to symbolize shearing. After Tuesday night’s performance, the gallery presents collected materials from the performance (wool socks, hair, milk, and soap) along with a video of a performance.

Week 2 (July 7-12) - Patrick Lichty: Summer of Love 2.0
Live performance: July 7 at 7 pm
Patrick Lichty explores the online cultural convergence of Web 2.0 and compares this connectivity to the 1967 “Summer of Love” gathering of more than 100,000 young people in San Francisco. Two weeks prior to the installation, Lichty will send out a call to Web 2.0 websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Second Life for discussion based on the question: “What is Love?” During the installation, texts (from sources such as Twitter) and images created in Second Life are projected live in the gallery. The installation begins with an interactive Second Life performance by Lichty’s group Second Front.

Week 3 (July 14-19) - Amber Ginsburg, Carla Duarte, and Lisa Rousset: re.pur.pose a work in material gestures
Live performance: July 14 at 7 pm
Using the gallery as a meeting room, Amber Ginsburg, Carla Duarte, and Lisa Rousset record and repurpose everyday materials through their durational performances. They place common objects, such as sweaters, bricks, and seeds, into yellow rickshaws and move throughout the museum and city streets. The artists ask people to help them repurpose the materials. The sweaters are transformed back into their previous state of wool strings; the bricks, originally pieces of architecture, become canvases for portraiture; and the seeds, which have been saved from foods the artists consumed, are distributed for future planting.

Week 4 (July 21-26) - Eric leonardson, Chad Clark, and Bret Ian Balogh: Chicago Phonography
Live performance: July 21 at 7 pm
Chicago Phonography is a local sound collective comprising sound artists and experimental musicians who perform live improvisations using audio recordings of Chicago’s urban soundscape. The collective performs using ambient recordings from the MCA, the surrounding neighborhood, and the world via internet streaming. In addition, the gallery becomes an interactive audio/visual digital mapping installation of the recorded sounds. A projected map with icons represents each established worldwide streamer that is playing in the space.

Week 5 (July 28- August 2)- Justin Cooper: Vay Kay
Live performances of Crater: July 28 at 7 pm, Sprinkle: July 30 from noon - 5 pm; Relax: July 31 all day; Crumple: August 1 from noon- 5 pm
Justin Cooper presents a four-part performance series themed around family vacations. Crater is an interactive sound installation that deconstructs an argument Cooper had with his family on a childhood vacation. A dialogue recorded by four actors representing Cooper, his parents, and sister, is broadcast in the gallery, controlled by four invisible laser beams. When a gallery visitor breaks a laser beam, that family member’s argument is triggered. With multiple viewers moving through the space, the vocal laser beams are activated at random intervals creating a fragmented cacophony that speaks to the way in which memory fragments past experiences. An overhead video camera captures visitor reactions and plays in the gallery each subsequent day. Sprinkle is an interactive performance that utilizes four lawn sprinklers on the MCA Plaza. Cooper re-creates a water-free sprinkler installation in the gallery the following day. Relax, a sound installation, plays ambient ocean sounds interspersed with the sounds of unknown creatures in the gallery and MCA Store. Copies of the CD are sold in the MCA Store. Crumple takes place in the MCA Sculpture Garden and presents a piece of Astroturf fitted with wire armatures that is “crumpled” like a piece of paper throughout the day.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
220 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 6061
General Telephone: 312.280.2660
Box Office Telephone: 312.397.4010
FAX: 312.397.4095

www.mcachicago.org