Städel Museum to Begin Renovation and Expansion
By STAN PARCHIN
August 24, 2009
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| Städel Museum (exterior). Photograph courtesy of Städel Museum. |
The Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany will begin its planned €40 million ($57 million) renovation and expansion in September 2009. Once completed, its exhibition space will nearly double from 43,000 to 75,000 square feet. A new gallery designed by Schneider+Schumacher will be built beneath the museum's garden.
During construction, an exhibition of the Städel Museum's 19th- and 20th-century paintings and sculptures by 70 artists will travel to the Fondation de l'Hermitage in Lausanne, Switzerland and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. Many of the museum's Dutch and Flemish paintings will appear in Bilbao, Spain, Tokyo and other cities in Japan.
Bactrian Hoard Discoverer Honored by Afghanistan
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| Viktor Sarianidi (left), who excavated Tillya Tepe in 1978, examines some of the artifacts he called the Golden Hoard of Bactria. Photograph courtesy of Viktor Sarianidi. |
By STAN PARCHIN
August 21, 2009
Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi was awarded the Medal of the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Moscow on August 19, 2009 in recognition of his contributions to the history of the Central Asian nation. Zalmay Aziz, Afghanistan's ambassador to the Russian Federation, bestowed his country's highest honor on the scientist.
During a Soviet-Afghan expedition in 1978, Sarianidi and his team discovered the so-called Bactrian Hoard, some 20,000 gold artifacts (mostly jewelry) that date from ca. 1000 B.C. A number of the priceless works are part of the traveling exhibition
Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul. Talks are underway for the show to appear in Russia in 2011 after stops in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
SourceHiebert, Fredrik and Pierre Cambon (eds.), et al.
Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul (exh. cat.). New York and Washington, D.C.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and National Geographic Society, 2008, 211-293.
Penn Museum Archaeology Lecture Series Fall 2009By STAN PARCHIN
August 20, 2009
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| Roots Engulfing Ruins at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Photograph courtesy of University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. |
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| Camel Caravan on the Plain of Rayy, Iran (1934). Photograph courtesy University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Archaeology. |
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The
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia is offering five lectures on ancient art in Fall 2009. Visit its website or call (215) 898-4890 for the most current information on these programs. The first presentation requires reservations.
Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle over Our Cultural PropertyMonday, November 2, 2009 at 5:00 PM
James Cuno, President and Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, brings his popular lecture on museums and the ownership of artifacts in the 21st Century to Penn Museum. Admission: pay-what-you-like. Reservations requested.
Angkor!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Joyce C. White, Associate Curator of Penn Museum's Asian Section, discusses the fascinating art, architecture and daily life of Angkor, the ancient Cambodian kingdom long-forgotten and discovered by 19th-century European explorers. A light reception and gallery tour follows. $5 in advance; $10 at the door; free for Penn Museum members.
No Armchair Archaeologists Allowed: Travails of Travel on Early Penn Museum Expeditions
Thursday, November 11, 2009 at 6:00 PM
With period photographs and amusing anecdotes, staff archivist Alessandro Pezzati recreates Penn Museum's early field expeditions and the difficulties of travel over land and water, through jungle and across glacier. Highlights include Mesopotamia in the 1890s, the Amazon in the 1910s, by air in Iran and the Yucatan in the 1930s and underwater exploration in the 1960s. Admission: pay-what-you-like. A reception follows for members of the 1887 (10 years of consecutive giving) and Sarah Yorke Stevenson (Planned Gift) Societies.
Pompeii A.D. 79: The Treasury of Rediscovery
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Dr. C. Brian Rose, Penn Museum's Deputy Director and Curator-in-Charge of its Mediterranean Section, brings to life the thriving culture of the 1st-century A.D. Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum on the eve of Mount Vesuvius' fateful two-day volcanic eruption in August 79 A.D. President of the Archaeological Institute of America, Rose also describes the lives of the sites' 18th-century excavators. A light reception and related gallery tour follow the presentation. $5 in advance; $10 at the door; free for Penn Museum members.
Douglas G. Lovell, Jr. Annual "Reports from the Field"
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Simon Martin, Penn Museum's Associate Curator of its American Section, presents his latest research on the hieroglyphs of Calakmul, Mexico and the Classic Maya who lived there. Dr. Lauren Ristvet, Dyson Chair and Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, discusses her excavations in Azerbaijan (the first American excavations in that country) at the ancient fortress site of Oglanqala, inhabited between 1200 and 200 BCE. Ristvet's team is uncovering fortresses, cemeteries and nomadic settlements that document life on the edge of several ancient empires. Admission: pay-what-you-like. Reception follows: $35; $25 Penn Museum members.
Deborah Gribbon Appointed Interim Director of Cleveland Museum of Art
By STAN PARCHIN
August 13, 2009
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| Cleveland Museum of Art (exterior). Photograph courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art. |
The
Cleveland Museum of Art today announced the appointment of Deborah Gribbon as Interim Director, effective September 14, 2009. She temporarily replaces Timothy Rub, who assumes the directorship of the Philadelphia Museum of Art next month. In her new capacity, Gribbon will advise the search committee established to find Rub's successor. She is not a candidate for the CMA's directorship.
EducationDeborah Gribbon received her bachelor's degree in art history from Wellesley College and her master's degree and doctorate in fine arts from Harvard University. The subject of her Ph.D. dissertation was the art of Edouard Manet.
ExperienceAs a graduate student at Harvard University, Gribbon taught in various capacities. She served as a curator at the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum for eight years. Over a period of 16 years, she was Associate Director, Chief Curator and Deputy Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. There she oversaw all collection activity, daily operations and the planning and design of the new facility at the Getty Center. From 2000 to 2004, Gribbon was Director of the museum and Vice President of the J. Paul Getty Trust. Under her aegis, the Getty acquired more than 500 works of art and greatly expanded its program of special exhibitions.
Regarding Deborah Gribbon's new position at the CMA, Board of Trustees President Alfred M, Rankin, Jr. said, “She has proven herself to be a thoughtful manager of employees, a wise steward of an institution’s finances and an experienced leader of collection installations and building projects on a scale such as ours. I am looking forward to working with her.”
Search for a New Director The Cleveland Museum of Art has retained the executive recruiting firm Phillips Oppenheim, based in New York, to assist in the search for a new director.
Mary Morton Appointed Curator of French Painting at
National Gallery of Art
By STAN PARCHIN
August 1, 2009
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Mary Morton (2009). Photograph by Jessica Robinson provided by National Gallery of Art. |
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. announced on July 31, 2009 the appointment of Mary Morton as its Curator of French Paintings, effective January 2010. She succeeds the late Philip Conisbee, Senior Curator of European Paintings, after a nearly two-year search.
Education
Mary Morton earned her B.A. in history with departmental honors in 1987 from Stanford University, where she specialized in European intellectual history. She received her M.A. in 1992 and Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture in 1998 from Brown University. There she concentrated on 19th- and early 20th-century central European art.
Experience
Dr. Morton was Associate Curator of European Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from 1998 to 2004, where she organized the exhibition Focus on the Beck Collection: André Derain's "The Turning Road, L'Estaque" (2002). While in Texas, she collaborated on the traveling shows Paris in the Age of Impressionism: Masterworks from the Musée d'Orsay (2002-03) and Old Masters, Impressionists and Moderns: French Masterworks from the State Pushkin Museum, Moscow (2002-03). As Associate Curator of Paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum since 2004, she mounted Courbet and the Modern Landscape (2006), Oudry's Painted Menagerie (2007) and Sur le Motif: Painting in Nature around 1800 (2008).
The widely published Morton taught art history at the Art Center College of Design, Woodbury University, Chapman University and the Rhode Island School of Design.
At the National Gallery of Art
In her new curatorial capacity, Morton will oversee the NGA's collection of some 575 French paintings dating from the 17th to the early 20th Century, related exhibitions and acquisitions. She'll be involved in the 18-month renovation and restoration of the West Building's galleries dedicated to 19th-century French paintings, a project that begins in late Fall 2009. Many of the works for which she'll be responsible will play a vital role in From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection (January 31, 2010-July 31, 2011). Others will be relocated to three different areas within the museum's two structures.
Earl A. Powell III, Director of the NGA, said, "Mary Morton brings to the National Gallery of Art a rich background steeped in academia and distinguished by curatorial positions at top museums, where she has been deeply involved in scholarly exhibitions and catalogues."