Self-Portrait, Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987), © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andrew Warhola (Aug. 6, 1928 – Feb. 22, 1987), known as Andy Warhol, was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as Pop Art. 15 Minutes Eternal will be the largest retrospective exhibition of the artist in Asia to date. It will feature over 300 paintings, photographs, screen prints, drawings, 3-D installations and sculptures to provide a fascinating insight into one of the most provocative and influential artists of the 20th century. Iconic works in the exhibition include Jackie (1964), Marilyn Monroe (1967), Mao (1972), Campbell’s Soup (1961), Silver Liz (1963), The Last Supper (1986), and Self-Portrait (1986).

The exhibition is curated by The Andy Warhol Museum in Warhol’s home town of Pittsburgh. It chronicles the breadth of the artist’s career and demonstrates the extraordinary scope of his interests. It will travel to five Asian cities over 27 months starting at ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, where it will run from March 17, 2012 until Aug. 12, 2012. It will then tour to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing throughout 2013 and end in Tokyo in 2014. Further details on these locations will be confirmed in due course.

“Fascinated by the glitterati, Warhol remains a complex and often misunderstood persona, whose artwork depicting consumer objects such as Heinz ketchup boxes, and paintings of Marilyn Monroe and Mao Tse-Tung have been imprinted into our collective consciousness,” said Eric Shiner, director, The Andy Warhol Museum.

Shiner added: “We are thrilled that BNY Mellon is bringing the life, work and creative genius of Andy Warhol to cities across Asia. This remarkable and extensive collection celebrates anew someone whose life and work define the concept: fame is fleeting, art is eternal.”

“BNY Mellon’s global commitment to the arts is designed to facilitate access and deeper exploration of art through the communities in which we live and work. We are very proud to be supporting The Andy Warhol Museum and bringing this remarkable body of work to Asia,” said Steve Lackey, chairman of Asia-Pacific, BNY Mellon.

Additional corporate supporting sponsors of the Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal exhibition include Christie’s, The Economist and Bloomberg.

An exhibition catalog, Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal, will be available for purchase at all exhibition venues.

A comprehensive series of education programs will accompany the exhibition and feature silk-screening workshops for local schools.

Visitors with smartphones can preview a selection of the exhibition in advance. The Warhol Art app is available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android mobile devices via the iTunes App Store and Android Marketplace. The Warhol Art app allows users to examine works of art and related ephemera in The Warhol’s collection with an in-depth view of archival materials, letters, source images, film and video clips, and audio. The Warhol Art app features a behind-the-scenes glimpse of over 50 art works spanning Warhol’s career from the 1930s to late 1980s.

The Warhol D.I.Y. Pop app is also available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad mobile devices and can be downloaded via the iTunes app store. This app allows the user to learn about Warhol’s silkscreen process and create a digital silkscreen print by utilizing the built-in camera or a photo from the device’s library as source material. The user employs Warhol’s famed process step by step to create a personal work of art. The hands-on process includes cropping, exposing, painting, and even pulling the virtual screen. Once completed, the user can then share this newly created art via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. The Warhol D.I.Y app also includes information about The Warhol, a curator’s video perspective, a video demonstration of the actual silkscreen process and more.

About The Andy Warhol Museum:

Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the place of Andy Warhol’s birth, The Warhol is one of the most comprehensive single-artist museums in the world. The Andy Warhol Museum is one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh. The Warhol has an extensive traveling exhibitions program, loaning Warhol’s artwork to museums around the world. Since 1996, exhibitions organized or co-organized by The Warhol have been seen by over 9 million people in 36 countries. Visit the museum online at www.warhol.org.

#   #   #

Swami Vivekananda in a photo taken in Chicago in September, 1893. During his visit, the chief disciple of the 19th-century saint Ramkrishna Parmahansa and founder of the Ramakrishna Mission spoke at the Chicago Art Institute during the World’s Columbian Exposition. This photo is in the public domain in the USA.

CHICAGO (AP) – The government of India is forming a professional partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago.

The Art Institute will host an Indian delegation on Saturday to sign an agreement for the Vivekananda Memorial Program for Museum Excellence. The $500,000 grant honors Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda, who spoke in 1893 at the Art Institute during the World’s Columbian Exposition. The Art Institute says it’s the first U.S. museum to receive a grant from India.

The goal of the four-year program is to foster a professional partnership between the Art Institute and museums in India. During the four years the Art Institute will send staff members to India for workshops, seminars, lectures and courses. The Art Institute also will host fellowships in Chicago for Indian museum professionals.

___

Online: www.artic.edu

#   #   #

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Swami Vivekananda in a photo taken in Chicago in September, 1893. During his visit, the chief disciple of the 19th-century saint Ramkrishna Parmahansa and founder of the Ramakrishna Mission spoke at the Chicago Art Institute during the World’s Columbian Exposition. This photo is in the public domain in the USA.

Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859-1937) painted ‘The Annunciation’ in 1898. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A major retrospective of late 19th-century painter Henry O. Tanner, who left the racial prejudice of the U.S. for the salons of France and became the first internationally celebrated African-American artist, is making its debut at the prestigious Philadelphia art school he attended.

“Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit,” on view through April 15 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, features more than 100 paintings and drawings including the famed Resurrection of Lazarus on loan from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. The painting, which garnered widespread critical acclaim when it was first shown in 1897, has never before crossed the Atlantic.

Anna Marley, the show’s curator, noted that a description written long ago on the back of the “Lazarus” canvas says “Ecole Americaine”—identifying Tanner as part of the American school of painters.

“I know that would have made Henry Tanner very happy and very proud,” she said, “because in the United States when he was reviewed in the 19th century it would say ‘black artist’ and in Paris when he was received into the salon, it was … ‘Henry Tanner, American artist.’ So this is so important for so many reasons.”

Tanner (1859-1937) was born in Pittsburgh to a middle-class, deeply religious family. His father was an African Methodist Episcopalian minister and his mother was born a slave in Virginia and came to Pennsylvania via the Underground Railroad.

The family moved to Philadelphia in 1866, when Tanner was 7 years old. On a walk through the city’s picturesque Fairmount Park at 13, Tanner decided on his creative calling when he saw a painter at work outdoors.

A shy youngster, he spent much of his time painting and drawing at the city’s zoo and waterfront and visiting its museums and galleries.

He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1879 to 1885 and was a favorite student of Thomas Eakins, whose artistic sensibilities had a profound and lasting influence. The young artist went on to exhibit his work, sell his illustrations and open a photography studio in Atlanta but acceptance was a struggle amid the racial enmity prevalent in post-Civil War America.

Tanner left his home and family in 1891 for Paris, which was the center of the art world and lacked the racial bigotry he had experienced back home. He continued his art education and studied under several prominent French painters who became mentors and helped him gain exposure. The Resurrection of Lazarus cemented his place within the artistic elite and signaled his creative path toward Biblical subjects.

Tanner sent photographs of many of his paintings back to his Philadelphia alma mater for its archives, including Daniel and the Lion’s Den, another important painting of the same era whose whereabouts are unknown. A large black and white panel is on view for visitors to get a sense of what it looked like—and maybe lead to its recovery.

“I hope that maybe this exhibition will help us find it,” Marley said. “It was shown in Philadelphia and then it disappears from the records. … I hope it’s in a church basement in Philadelphia somewhere.”

Though the religious paintings that dominated his later career are the stars of the show, the exhibit also contains examples of Tanner’s earlier secular work.

The show also includes a section explaining a scientific and technical analysis of Tanner’s materials and methods conducted by the Smithsonian Institution, as well as a companion exhibit showing how Tanner was a mentor for African-American artists during his lifetime and remains a role model in the present.

“Henry Tanner was a modern man, a leader in his field, who was adventurous, who traveled the world, who was a phenomenal painter, but we also wanted to convey the fact that he was the leading American religious artist in this period,” Marley said. “And the reason … is because of his modernization of the genre.”

After its Philadelphia premiere, the exhibition heads to the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

___

Online:

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts:

http://www.pafa.org

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-01-26-12 2250GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859-1937) painted ‘The Annunciation’ in 1898. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.