MMFA - Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

Patrick Dougherty: Sculpture Installation

March 1, 2009 through March 1, 2010

Lookin' Good! Lookin' Good! A site-specific sculpture near the entrance of the MMFA, constructed March 2-19, 2009.

During March of 2009, North Carolina artist Patrick Dougherty has built a site-specific sculpture on the lawn by the main entrance to the Museum. He used saplings gathered around East Montgomery to create a structure ten to twenty feet tall and thirty to fifty feet square. The sculpture echoes the shape of the brick "port cochere" that flanks the Museum's entrance. The artist used volunteers to gather and weave the truckloads of sticks that are needed to create his signature sculptures. The art is expected to last a year or two before nature takes its course, at which time the sculpture will be destroyed per agreement with the artist. For more information, see the Dougherty Installation page.

Photographs by Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002)

August 1, 2009 through August 8, 2010

Robert Frost, 1958 Gelatin silver print on paper Lent by Mrs. Yousuf Karsh

By the time of his retirement in 1992, more than 15,000 people had been the subjects of Yousuf Karsh's portraits.  Not all of his sitters were famous, but Karsh made his reputation by crafting the iconic images of household names.  His technical mastery of lighting and printing enabled him to produce remarkable portraits with rich, velvety blacks, clear, strong whites, and a complete tonal range in between. Over the next few months, many of the master’s best-known works will be displayed in a series of small exhibitions in the Williamson Gallery and adjacent Orientation Lobby. Artists, Architects, Designers, and Dancers will be featured in back-to-back exhibitions February 6 through April 4 and April 10 through June 6.  Picasso, Giacometti, Chagall, Disney, Steichen, O’Keeffe, Warhol, and Nureyev will be joined by Man Ray, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and others.The Karsh series will conclude with Presidents, Princes, a Pope and More June 12 through August 8.  Large black and white images of Truman,Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Reagan impeccably printed under Karsh’s direction will hang adjacent to portraits of European royalty—Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, Princess Grace and Prince Ranier.  The exhibition will also include group portraits the Apollo XI crew, and one of Hellen Keller and her companion Polly Thompson.

ART AUCTION 2010

Bidding Opens February 6th

Bidding at Art Auction

The Museum’s biennial art auction in support of the exhibitions, acquisitions, and educational programs of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts will be held on Thursday, February 25, and Saturday, February 27, at the Museum.

The Silent Auction will be held on Thursday evening from 6:30 pm to 9 pm, and tickets are $50.00 per person for an elegant cocktail reception and the chance to bid for over 450 works of art.  The Live Auction is Saturday, beginning at 6:00 pm, with tickets at $150.00 per person, featuring cocktails and dinner, with a live auction of 35 exceptional works from galleries around the United States. The range of artworks available is extraordinary—from fine paintings, works on paper and photography, to sculpture, glass, ceramics, and jewelry.

The MMFA Art Auction has established a reputation as both an outstanding opportunity to acquire distinctive works of art in all price ranges, as well as providing an exciting, fun-filled auction experience.  The majority of items are included in the Silent Auction, with items as inexpensive as $30.00 open for bidding beginning on February 6^th.  The Silent Auction remains open to the public until the 25^th, and anyone is welcome to come in and view the works and place a bid.  There is no charge to visit the Silent Auction installation, or to place a bid on any of the items on view. The Silent Auction culminates in the Thursday evening party which allows the attendees the opportunity to place that all important, final winning bid before the closing bell. You do not have to be present on Thursday to acquire an object in the Silent Auction…if yours is the last bid at the bell, you’ve got it!

On Saturday evening, the event replicates the elegance and drama of a New York auction, featuring a professional auctioneer from Christie’s, New York, as well as a gourmet dinner prepared by the Museum’s caterer, Jennie Weller.  There is always plenty of work available on both evenings at auction in a broad range of price, with an emphasis on both beauty, as well as affordability.

The Art Auction is sponsored by Merrill Lynch.  Please call the Development Department at 334-240-4333 for more information.

Tin Man: The Art of Charlie Lucas

March 6 through June 20, 2010

Charlie Lucas at the Flimp Festival, photograph by Emily Thomas

Alabama-native Charlie Lucas' scrap steel sculptures and vibrant paintings simultaneously combine the aesthetics of Modernist abstraction with the whimsy of folk art. While he has exhibited his work since 1984, most recently, it has been featured in the 2009 book published by the University of Alabama Press entitled Tin Man: The Sculpture of Charlie Lucas. This installation will showcase Lucas' large-scale metal sculptures, borrowed from his Prattville, Alabama, sculpture environment, as well as smaller relief sculptures and paintings. The exhibition is organized by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.

Lost in Form, Found in Line: Works by Robert Motherwell

April 3 through June 27, 2010

Robert Motherwell(1915-1991), In White with Green Stripe, 1987, Lithograph/Relief Print, Embossing and Collage, Courtesy of Jerald Melberg, Inc

Robert Motherwell was one of the great painter/printmakers of the mid-twentieth century, and a prominent figure in the movement known as Abstract Expressionism.  This exhibition contains examples of his works on paper - print multiples, monotypes and unique drawings that explore his working process, and particularly the influence of his studio environment.  For this artist, the studio was a sanctuary which was self-sustaining; continually expansive, and revealing of the possibilities that a phrase or poem might provide for a work of art.  About sixty works will be included, along with photographs of Motherwell's studio inspiration walls and of the artist at work. 

The exhibition is organized by the Jerald Melberg Gallery, Inc. in cooperation with the Dedalus Foundation.

Nicola Marschall and the Walker Family at Cedar Grove

April 3 through June 20, 2010

Nicola Marschall, First Lieutenant J. Mack Walker, 1865, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Hopson Owen.

In 1865, Prussian-born artist Nicola Marschall painted a full-length, posthumous portrait of a Civil War officer of the Confederate Army, First Lieutenant J. Mack Walker, C.S.A. The Museum acquired this work as a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Hopson Owen in 1938. Museum staff members have been researching this painting—the artist and sitter— for a number of years, utilizing both scholarly resources as well as local and family histories. This exhibition is a visual summation of this research, which has established connections among the artist, the subject's family and their ancestral home, Cedar Grove near Faunsdale, Alabama. The portraitist, Nicola Marschall, was an itinerant artist who lived at Cedar Grove prior to the Civil War, and for a period after the War when he painted portraits of members of the Walker family. The exhibition will bring together family portraits, historical artifacts, photographic documentation and the lore of this plantation-centered family and site to tell the story of art in the lives of West Alabamians in the 19th century. It will reveal relationships and the dynamics of art patronage within the context of this remarkable period in Alabama history.

Objects of Wonder: Four Centuries of Still Life from the Norton Museum of Art

July 3 through October 10. 2010

William M. Harnett,Bachelor's Table,1880, Norton Museum of Art

Objects of Wonder includes approximately fifty-two works of art from the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. It presents a cross section of works in many media united by the genre of still life, encompassing works from many cultures and over four centuries, dating from the Ming Dynasty of China to the early 2000s.  A still life is generally a depiction of a diverse arrangement of inanimate objects: flowers, fruits, game, plants and other materials. The earliest such compositions are found in Egyptian funerary paintings, and the genre extends through all periods of art in most every culture.  Accomplished and prominent artists such as Henri Matisse, Georgia O'Keeffe, Andy Warhol, Gustave Courbet, Edward Weston, and Claes Oldenburg, contribute works in a variety of media. to this exhibition. Still life celebrates the significance of even the most mundane of objects, embracing and perpetuating a moment in time that combines experience of real life with artistic representation.

Fantasies & Fairy Tales: Maxfield Parrish and the Art of the Print

October 30 through January 9, 2011

Maxfield Parrish was one of the early 20th century's most popular and well-known artists who undertook hundreds of commissions for book illustrations, magazine covers, advertisements and lithographs that reveal both his sense of humor and his unparallelled eye for graphic design. Though modern scholarship pays increasing attention to Maxfield Parrish's career as a fine artist, the immense popularity of his work during the early 20th century rested upon his commercial design work. In many cases, Parrish's original paintings were a direct result of these commercial enterprises. Before abandoning figurative work in the 1950s, Parrish undertook hundreds of these commissions. This exhibition presents a comprehensive sampling of Parrishs printed works, offering insight into the multifaceted relationship between the worlds of commercial and fine art.

The Art of the Theatre

November 1 through January 25, 2009

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival's production of the War of the Roses Trilogy will be the source for this intriguing exhibition of art and artifacts interpreting contemporary stagecraft. The installation will illustrate and manifest the creative design and construction processes that transform the Bard's written word into a 21st century theatrical production in the Elizabethan style.

Sonia Handelman Meyer: Images from the Photo League

January 24 through May 10, 2009

In the years around World War II, Sonia Handelman lived in New York City and worked as a photographer, focusing on the lives of common people who surrounded her. The child of Eastern European immigrant parents, she gravitated towards the poor and dispossessed. Like Lewis Hine and Farm Security Administration photographers of the Great Depression, she believed that social documentary photography could improve the lives of people by communicating the humanity of the oppressed and disadvantaged. Handelman’s sentiments were shared by members of the Photo League, a group of photographers active in New York City from 1936 to 1951. The Photo League was loosely organized around exhibitions, lectures, classes, and a newsletter. Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke-White, Lisette Model, Bernice Abbott, W. Eugene Smith, Aaron Siskind, and Paul Strand were members. Handelman was an active member of the group and she served briefly as its secretary, the only paid staff position. Her Photo League photography has sparked renewed interest. Exhibitions in Charlotte and New Orleans have acquainted a new generation of viewers with modern prints from the vintage negatives made in her twin-lens Rolleicord. Now Montgomerians can appreciate the art of this compassionate photographer whose honest and un-manipulated images provide insight to the lives of Americans who faced the challenges of their own day with dignity. Ghfas hshshjfg

Ancestry and Innovation: African American Art from the American Folk Art Museum

February 7 through April 12, 2009

The collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York is the source for 39 works created by self-taught African-American artists in the rural South and urban North. This exhibition surveys the Museum's rich holdings of this material, demonstrating the ongoing contribution of these artists to the kaleidoscope of American culture and visual experience. A number of the artists represented in the exhibition are Alabama natives, including quilters Leola Pettway, Lureca Outland, Mozell Benson and Mary Maxtion.
View Gallery

Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women

February 7 through May 10, 2009

"Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women" is the first scholarly examination (and the first exhibition since 1930) dedicated to the work of one of the most widely respected American artists of the turn of the twentieth century. The exhibition features 35 sculptures that span Vonnoh's most productive period, from about 1895 to 1930. It also includes portraits of the artist by her husband, the painter Robert Vonnoh, and several photographs which provide an intimate view into the life and work of this accomplished artist. A short video on the lost-wax method of casting bronze illuminates the complex process employed by the sculptor to capture the fluid modeling and delicate details that characterize her popular, naturalistic portrayals of women and children.
View Gallery

Pietrasanta Festival Exhibitions

May 2 through July 12, 2009

The Museum's Flimp Fesival had an international twist this year with exhibitions in the galleries featuring the work of Italian sculptors from Pietrasanta, Italy. The exhibitions, on view until July 12,  focus on the creative process of sculpting, particularly those works carved from marble, which is the prime material utilized by Pietrasanta artists and artisans In addition, an exhibition of photograhpy by Romano Cagnoni, a photographer from Tuscany who has been a photo-journalist for over fifty years, will include photographs that interpret the practices and traditional techniques of the artisans of Pietrasanta.

38th Montgomery Art Guild Museum Exhibition

May 23 through July 19, 2009

The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is proud to sponsor this biennial series of exhibitions in cooperation with the Montgomery Art Guild in order to give the community to survey the achievements of area artists. Traditionally, the Art Guild Museum exhibitions are filled with contemporary works in a variety of media, demonstrating significant dedication and creativity by a myriad of artists in the Montgomery area, as well as the State of Alabama. Since the late 1950s, the Museum has been partnering with the Montgomery Art Guild to produce exhibitions focusing on the works of artists in Central Alabama. While names have changed, the intent of the show has always been to encourage the production and appreciation of art within the community. Today the two organizations partner not just to produce the exhibitions, but also to provide instructional and enrichment experiences for artists of all ages.

Beverly Erdreich: Metaphor Boxes and Drawings

July 25 through September 27, 2009

In 2007, Birmingham artist Beverly Erdreich prepared an exhibition that was a striking departure from her previous work. Associated primarily with abstract painting, Erdreich began to research topical issues as subjects for mixed media presentations of drawings, paintings and box-based constructions. The result is Metaphor Boxes and Drawings, which challenges the viewer to consider the larger implications of the most important social and political concerns of our modern world. Erdreich writes, “For the last several decades I have been a painter. My work has been primarily abstract and approached in a rather lyrical manner…. However, the foreboding tragedies of AIDS and drugs, reoccurring tragedies of war and devastation, the dark and continuing prejudice among people, the unquestioned side of religion and the lost innocence of children…. prompted me to want to deal with these topics.” Her responses to these issues take the form of two-dimensional works accompanied by boxes she conceived and constructed in order to prompt the viewer’s contemplation and involvement.
View Gallery

Contemporary African-American Quilts from Alabama

July 25 through September 27, 2009

Throughout history quilts have held lan important and often cherished place in our culture, society and family traditions. Created in domestic settings, quilts serve both decorative and practical purposes. The creator is typically a woman and is not professionally trained, but has learned the essential skills of quilting in the home from her mother or relatives. The quilts quickly become treasured by the owners and often are passed on through the family to become prized heirloomss. Though the materials and techniques may be common, quilts, as process, as art, as image, reflect the very fabric of our history and democracy. In 2004, the Museum acquired a collection of 48 quilts, most of which were created in West Alabama between 1945 and 2001. The collector, Kempf Hogan, assembled the collection in concert with folk art dealer Robert Cargo and their mutual dedication insured that the collection is of both historical as well as artistic significance. Featured artists include Yvonne Wells, Mozell Benson, and Nora Ezell--all of whom now enjoy national renown. The designs of these textiles range from the traditional to the most contemporary forms of expression. The Museum will exhibit selections from this outstanding collection, including all 10 works the Museum now holds by Tuscaloosa quilt maker Yvonne Wells.

Mia Pearlman MAELSTROM

July 25 through September 27, 2009

Sculptor Mia Pearlman creates the ineffable from the ephemeral--her massive works of art are fashioned from paper, and they suggest the transitory nature of life on planet Earth. Featured in this exhibition will be MAELSTROM, a giant multilevel mobile, 12 feet in diameter with a 360-degree rotation. Consisting of six circular layers of cut paper hanging from an aluminum armature, it hovers just above the heads of its viewers. Swirling cut-paper clouds evoke nature's duality both perfectly sublime and supremely destructive.

A Century of Retablos: The Janis and Dennis Lyon Collection of New Mexican Santos, 1780-1880

October 24 through January 17, 2010

A rich tradition of religious painting flourished in the Southwest in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In this era of Spanish Colonial rule, painters and their workshops created wooden panels embellished with images from the lives of the saints and other holy figures. These panels, known as retablos, were visual narratives created for churches and homes as aides to veneration of the Saints. This exhibition, organized by the Phoenix Art Museum, features ninety-three Spanish colonial wooden retablos of New Mexico drawn from one of the most complete collections of this work in the United States. The artists, or santeros, were self-taught, and these images continue to influence the contemporary production of folk art in the Southwest.

Movements in Stillness: The Still-Life Paintings of Edgar Soberon

October 24, 2009 through January 24, 2010

Edgar Soberon's classically elegant still-life paintings are grounded in the work of the old as well as the modern masters.  A contemporary painter and printmaker now based in San Miquel de Allende, Mexico, Soberon's works speak to the long tradition of painting still life in the Hispanic world as exemplified by works of Spanish masters such as Francisco de Zurbaran and Francisco de Goya. The artist is recognized for his mastery of technique, his sensitivity to light and textures as well his ability to convey a wide range of ideas and emotions within the relatively narrow thematic range of the still life.

Soberon left his native Cuba at a young age, going to Spain with his family in 1971 before emigrating to New York two years later. As a young artist he studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York City, but returned to Europe in the 1980s. While in Spain in 1987, it was the masters of the Spanish Golden Age of still-life painting that most deeply struck a responsive chord in his imagination.  Together with his appreciation for the modern art of his native Cuba, these influences came to define a style of painting that is a unique blend of past and present.

The exhibition is organized by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, and will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue.