DETROIT—Visitors to the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) will be treated to the rare opportunity to see an early masterpiece by Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio) on loan from the Wadsworth Atheneum of Hartford, Connecticut, from Oct. 10 to Jan. 13. Caravaggio’s “Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy” will be displayed next to the DIA’s own Caravaggio painting, Martha and Mary Magdalene, also considered one of his finest masterpieces. These two 16th-century paintings demonstrate Caravaggio’s proficient rendering of form and his deep spiritual and emotional sense of the Christian faith.

“Caravaggio influenced many painters from other European countries who came to Rome to learn the master’s dramatic and realistic style,” said Salvador Salort-Pons, DIA executive director, Collection Strategies and Information. “Visitors will be able to explore two of the best Caravaggios in America side by side in the same gallery displaying paintings by his most celebrated followers, including Artemisia and Orazio Gentileschi, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Valentin de Boulogne, Dirck van Baburen and Matthias Stomer, among many others.”

Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy is probably the first of all the religious scenes that Caravaggio painted, a genre for which he is famous. The Life of Saint Francis, written in 1262 by Saint Bonaventure, inspired this painting. Bonaventure recounts that Saint Francis, in the company of Brother Leon, had gone to pray at the Mount La Verna, near Florence. While praying, Francis had a vision of a crucified seraph (a winged celestial being) that imprinted the stigmata—five wounds inflicted on Christ during the crucifixion—onto Saint Francis’ body.

Breaking with the tradition of representing the miracle of Saint Francis’ stigmata, Caravaggio depicts the moment after the supernatural event. After receiving the wounds, Francis lies on the ground in ecstasy, held by an angel who comforts him. Caravaggio is more interested in representing the spiritual translation of the miracle than a literal image of it. On the lower left of the canvas, Brother Leon is seen in the darkness, totally unaware of the miraculous moment. Like in many of his religious paintings, Caravaggio focuses on the internal and spiritual nature of the Christian faith.

The painting is one of the few times, if not the only time, that Caravaggio represents a nightscape, which is very difficult to paint, showing his celebrated command of the use of light. In the dark background sky are yellow and orange strips that show the sky’s last gleams as manifestations of divine power. In the foreground. the light comes from above and to the left, bathing the two figures with a warm glow that underscores Francis’ ecstatic peacefulness and the loving gesture of the angel.

While Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy is one of his first religious paintings, the DIA’s Martha and Mary Magdalene is one of his first known religious works dramatically staged in an interior. The paintings will be shown side by side, allowing the viewer to compare the skillful rendering and deep spiritual emotion of two of Caravaggio’s early masterpieces

Hours and Admission:

Museum hours are 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Tuesdays–Thursdays, 9 a.m.–10 p.m. Fridays, and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. General admission (excludes ticketed exhibitions) is free for Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county residents and DIA members. For all others, $8 for adults, $6 for seniors ages 62+, $4 for ages 6–17. For membership information, call 313-833-7971.

About DIA:

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), one of the premier art museums in the United States, is home to more than 60,000 works that comprise a multicultural survey of human creativity from ancient times through the 21st century. From the first Van Gogh painting to enter a U.S. museum (Self-Portrait, 1887), to Diego Rivera’s world-renowned Detroit Industry murals (1932–33), the DIA’s collection is known for its quality, range, and depth. The DIA’s mission is to create opportunities for all visitors to find personal meaning in art.

Programs are made possible with support from residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

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SANTA FE, N.M. – The Hyde Collection, in association with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, is organizing a first‑of‑its-kind exhibition to closely examine the extraordinary body of work created by O’Keeffe of and at Lake George. The exhibition will explore the full range of work by the artist from magnified botanical compositions of the flowers and vegetables that O’Keeffe grew in her garden, to a group of remarkable still lifes of the apples and pears that she picked on the property. O’Keeffe became fascinated with the variety of trees – cedars, maples, poplars, and birches – that grew in abundance at Lake George, and they were the subject of at least twenty‑five compositions. Telescopic views of a single leaf or pairs of overlapping leaves were another recurring motif during O’Keeffe’s Lake George years, resulting in some twenty‑nine canvases. Architectural subjects, including paintings of the weathered barns and buildings on the Stieglitz property that blend the descriptive and the abstract, emerged as a theme, as did a number of panoramic landscape paintings and bold, color‑filled abstractions that often visually related to the subjects she was working on at the time. All of these themes will be explored through a selection of approximately fifty‑five works from public and private collections.

Like many artists of her generation and earlier ones as well, O’Keeffe painted throughout the summer and fall and transported canvases back to her New York studio for completion and exhibition in the spring. During this highly productive decade, O’Keeffe created more than two hundred paintings on canvas and paper in addition to sketches and pastels, making the Lake George years among the most prolific and transformative of her seven‑decade career. This period also coincided with O’Keeffe’s first critical success and professionalization as an artist; yet, Lake George is often portrayed as an annoyance from which she tried to escape. As this exhibition will demonstrate, Lake George served as a rural retreat for the artist, providing the basic material for her art, while evoking the spirit of place that was essential to O’Keeffe’s modern approach to the natural world.

In 1923, Georgia O’Keeffe enthusiastically wrote to her friend Sherwood Anderson, “I wish you could see the place here – there is something so perfect about the mountains and the lake and the trees – Sometimes I want to tear it all to pieces – it seems so perfect – but it is really lovely – And when the household is in good running order – and I feel free to work it is very nice.”

Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George was organized by the Hyde Collection in association with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. The national presentations of the exhibition and catalogue have been made possible in part with support from The Henry Luce Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support and related programming were made possible in part by a generous grant from The Burnett Foundation, and partially funded by the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission and the 1% Lodgers’ Tax, and Century Bank. Additional support for the catalogue has been provided by Furthermore: a program of the J. M Kaplan Fund.

Visit the museum online at www.okeeffemuseum.org.

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NEW YORK – The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s presentation of three special exhibitions during the spring/summer 2013 season—Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity; Punk: Chaos to Couture; and The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi—generated an estimated $742 million in spending by regional, national, and international tourists to New York, according to a visitor survey released by the Museum today. Using the industry standard for calculating tax revenue impact, the study found that the direct tax benefit to the City and State from out-of-town visitors to the Museum totaled some $74.2 million. (Study findings below.) The full-year estimate of visitor spending in New York by out-of-town visitors to the Museum in fiscal year 2013 is $5.4 billion.

Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum, noted: “It is particularly gratifying to see that visitors from around the globe continue to respond enthusiastically to the Met’s diverse exhibitions and renowned permanent collection. A visit to the Met was cited repeatedly—by more than half of the out-of-town visitors in our survey—as a key reason for deciding to travel to New York.”

Emily K. Rafferty, President of the Metropolitan Museum—who also serves as chair of NYC & Company, the city’s official tourism agency—stated: “Tourism—both domestic and international—is vital to New York’s economic health. The Metropolitan Museum is the most-visited cultural attraction in the City. We are proud of this strong record of attracting visitors from beyond the five boroughs, and of the Met’s clear impact on the economy.”

In the spring/summer 2013 survey period, Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity, on view from February 26 to May 27, 2013, drew 440,973 visitors. Attendance for Punk: Chaos to Couture was 442,350 during its run from May 9 to August 14. And The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi attracted 259,858 visitors from May 14 through August 31, 2013, when this survey was completed.

The survey found that 1.7 million or 77% of the Museum’s visitors traveled from outside the five boroughs of New York. Of these travelers, 21% were from the Tri-State area, 31% were from other states, and 48% were international visitors. Seventy-eight percent of travelers reported staying overnight in the City and, of these, three-quarters stayed in a hotel, hostel, or rented apartment. The average length of stay was 6.6 days. These out-of-town visitors reported spending an average of $1,139 per person ($773 for lodging, sightseeing, entertainment, admission to museums, and local transportation, and another $366 for shopping). Overall spending per person was 3% lower than in 2012, primarily due to a decline in shopping. The amount reported for lodging and other expenses is virtually unchanged from 2012.

Fifty-four percent of travelers cited visiting the Met as a key motivating factor in visiting New York. Using a scale of one to ten, 26% of visitors responded with a rating of 8 or above when asked how important seeing one of the three exhibitions was in motivating them to visit New York, and 54% gave a rating of 8 or above with regard to the Met in general. The primary purpose of traveling to New York was pleasure for 84% of visitors, business for 4%, and combined business and pleasure for 12%.

The latest economic impact survey was conducted by the Museum’s Office of Market Research/Marketing & External Relations Department.

Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity considered the role of fashion in the works of the Impressionists and their contemporaries. The exhibition was made possible in part by The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, the Janice H. Levin Fund, and the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. Additional support was provided by Renée Belfer. The exhibition was supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, and was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Punk: Chaos to Couture examined punk’s impact on high fashion from the movement’s birth in the 1970s through its continuing influence today. The exhibition was made possible by Moda Operandi. Additional support was provided by Condé Nast.

The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi presents the first large-scale installation in the United States by the contemporary artist Imran Qureshi. The exhibition is made possible by Bloomberg. Additional support is provided by Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky.

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