October Events @ UMFA (SLC)

Utah Museum of Fine Arts
October 2010

Don’t miss Warhol, Kusama, Southey and more at the UMFA this fall!


SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS:

The Ideal Landscape
October 7, 2010–February 13, 2011
Chinese landscape paintings do not recreate a natural setting, but instead conjure an ideal scene imagined by the artist. As a result, these intricate depictions of mountains and bodies of water offer expressions of the painter’s heart and mind. This fall, the UMFA will bring together thirteen Chinese landscape paintings dating from the Ming dynasty to the twentieth century in The Ideal Landscape, an exhibition that will be installed in the UMFA’s second-floor LDS Galleria.

Trevor Southey: Reconciliation
October 21, 2010–February 13, 2011
This retrospective of the life and work of artist Trevor Southey gives prominence to four life passages that have defined Southey’s character and art: his youth in Rhodesia and education in England; his life as a married, practicing Mormon and his desire for a utopian lifestyle created around family, farming, and art; Southey’s decision to acknowledge his homosexuality in 1982, which coincided with the first major public awareness of the AIDS epidemic; and the reconciliation of his life decisions as expressed in his revised artistic approach to the human form. This exhibition is generously supported by the B.W. Bastian Foundation, Jim Dabakis and Stephen Justesen, and Tom and Mary McCarthey.

Yayoi Kusama: Decades
October 21, 2010–February 13, 2011
Yayoi Kusama: Decades offers a focused presentation of exemplary works by renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. A key figure in the New York art world of the late 1950s and 1960s, Kusama’s pioneering work has galvanized subsequent generations of artists. From her early watercolor paintings of the 1950s to her “accumulation” sculptures of the 1960s, to recent, large-scale “infinity nets” paintings, the exhibition highlights works from each decade of the artist’s long career.

Faces: Selections from the Permanent Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art
October 21, 2010–February 13, 2011
This exhibition brings together classic works of Pop Art and more recent Pop-inflected works, with a focus on the human face and figure. Many works in the exhibition take the form of portraits, such as Alex Katz’s series of screen prints depicting young people in the 1970s, or ironic self-portraits, as in Robert Arneson’s Untitled Trophy (Bust Of Bob), 1978. Faces also includes a selection of Andy Warhol’s famous Polaroid portraits, a recent gift from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, on view at the UMFA for the first time. Ranging from portraits of the rich and famous to unknown figures, Warhol’s Polaroids revel in the idiosyncrasies of his subjects.


SPECIAL FREE EVENTS:

Highlights of the Collection Tour
First Wednesday of the month at 6:30pm and all Saturdays and Sundays at 1:30pm
Let a UMFA docent take you on a thirty-minute tour of the world’s art and cultures. No pre-registration necessary.

Evening for Educators: Bats!
Wednesday, October 6 • 5:30-8:30 pm
This teacher workshop will show you how to use art to explore the ways that different cultures think about bats. Designed for teachers in all disciplines and grade levels, the workshop is free with no pre-registration necessary. For more information call 801.585.7163 or email umfaeducation@umfa.utah.edu. Funded in part by the StateWide Art Partnership.

Guest Lecture: “Natacha Rambova: A Career in Design”
Thursday, October 7 • 1:30-2:30 pm
Natacha Rambova changed careers nearly as often as she changed her name. Her work in ballet performance and design, early Hollywood film costume and art direction, as well as her brief fashion design career in New York were innovative for their day. A Salt Lake City native, this interesting and creative character eventually became an Egyptologist – donating much of her antique Egyptian artifacts collection to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. This lecture by historian Heather A. Vaughan will focus on Rambova’s career in design and the arts, as well as her connection to Salt Lake City. More information is available at www.fashionhistorian.net.

Anthropology Film Series
Wednesdays, October 13, October 20, October 27 • 6–8 pm
The UMFA is teaming up with the University of Utah Department of Anthropology to present a series of films from around the world that highlight art and anthropology. Visit www.umfa.utah.edu/calendar for more details.

Third Saturdays for Families: Making Masks
Saturday, October 16 • 2-4 pm
On the Third Saturday of every month, UMFA Curators of Education develop exciting opportunities for children and families to learn about art and investigate how it is made. On this particular Third Saturday, we will find spooky inspiration in our African, Oceanic, and Native American galleries, and then create colorful masks to take home. Third Saturday is funded in part by the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts, and Parks program.

Guest Lecture: "Mountains and Meanings in Chinese Landscape Painting"
Wednesday, October 20 • 1-2 pm
The art of landscape painting in China has always balanced the close observation of nature with the abstraction of its representation. This lecture by University of Utah Professor of Art History Winston Kyan will situate the Chinese paintings from the exhibition, The Ideal Landscape, into the broader context of Chinese art and history by examining the shifting significance of mountains from the fourteenth through the twentieth centuries.

Artist Reception: Trevor Southey
Thursday, October 21 • 4:30-6 pm
Meet artist Trevor Southey, enjoy some light refreshments, and experience the Trevor Southey: Reconciliation exhibition on opening night. This free public event is supported in part by the University of Utah Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center. For a full list of U of U Pride Week events, please visit www.sa.utah.edu/lgbt/events/Uprideweek.

Panel Discussion: “The Alpine Ideal”
Thursday, October 21 • 6:30-8 pm
In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition Trevor Southey: Reconciliation, the UMFA is pleased to offer a free public panel discussion with Trevor Southey, Gary E. Smith, Dennis Smith, and Neil Hadlock. These distinguished artists will talk about their lives and work, paying particular attention to a period in the 1970s known as the “Alpine Ideal.”


ONGOING EXHIBITIONS

Painting Utah’s Mount Olympus
On view through November 14, 2010
Mount Olympus is not the tallest mountain in the Wasatch Range, but anyone who has seen this awesome natural wonder will agree with the early pioneers who bestowed it with the Greek name for ‘the home of the gods.' For the past 150 years, some of Utah's most talented artists, including Lee Greene Richards, Gilbert Munger, Edwin Deaken, Anton Rasmussen, David Meikle, and others, have attempted to do justice to this silent sentinel. Through their work, the home of the gods is immortalized in Painting Utah’s Mount Olympus.

Community: Eat, Work, Play
On view through January 9, 2011
Big canvases, bold colors, and intriguing ideas are on offer in Community: Eat, Work, Play. With the help of UMFA educators, first- and sixth-graders from Lincoln Elementary School created large-scale murals that visually represent the various aspects of the title: eat, work, and play.