Philip Pearlstein's
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April, May, June 2013 PHILIP PEARLSTEIN’S PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS Mahaffeys Donate Director’s Welcome Planters to MFA Dear Friends, Two large-scale, striking planters with small palm trees Philip Pearlstein is a bright star in the galaxy of great now grace the entrance to the original building. They American artists. Since he first came to public notice have been made possible by a generous donation from in 1941, he has produced a compelling body of work Mark T. and Marianne Mahaffey. Mr. Mahaffey was that has been selected for great museum collections elected to the Museum’s Board of Trustees in 2012. around the world and has been featured prominently in our art history books. He charmed everyone when we opened Philip Mr. and Mrs. Mahaffey have been civic leaders Pearlstein’s People, Places, Things. A visit to the Hazel Hough Wing will reveal why he is such an important artist who chose representation for many years. They have served on numerous rather than abstraction, long the predominant mode in modern art. Your boards and have been loyal donors to a wide range Museum of Fine Arts organized this exhibition, the most comprehensive of nonprofits, including the MFA. Mr. Mahaffey is retrospective ever of his art. Chairman of the Board and Partner of the Mahaffey Company, which develops and manages rental As we look to the summer, we are about to begin an exciting project that apartment communities in the Tampa Bay area and will change our experience of the collection and the Museum. We are going central Florida. The history of St. Petersburg could to renovate the permanent collection galleries, from the flooring to the not be written without a long chapter devoted to the walls to the lighting. This will allow us to see our magnificent and growing business acumen and open-hearted service of the collection in fresh ways, with new eyes. Mahaffey family. We also look ahead with special excitement to our 50th anniversary—in The new sandstone planters were cast especially for the 2015. We already have this golden moment in our headlights and will be MFA by Haddonstone. They complement the color and sharing ways we will celebrate this special time in the months ahead. texture of the original building and resemble imposing neo-classical sculpture on pedestals. At the same For all of our mission-focused activities—whether through better time, they seem perfectly at home in Florida’s tropical presentation of art or through engaging and vibrant educational climate. An English company, Haddonstone also has programs—we depend on you, our members and friends, for support. Philip manufacturing facilities in the United States. Its garden Pearlstein’s vision reminds us of the lasting importance of commitment to ornaments and building materials are used by leading the very best. We want that, always, for every visitor and for our community. architects and landscape designers around the globe. Thank you so much for joining in this journey. Sincerely, On the cover: Philip Pearlstein (American, born 1924) Scott Burton (detail), 1975 Kent Lydecker Oil on canvas Director Collection of The Greene Family Museum Photographs: Thomas U. Gessler New planters, donated by Mark T. and Marianne Mahaffey, now enhance the entrance to the original building. 2 CURRENT | UPCOMING | EXHIBITIONS Philip Pearlstein’s People, Places, Things Through Sunday, June 16 With 62 paintings, drawings, and prints, this is the most comprehensive retrospective of Mr. Pearlstein’s art to date. The works range from 1941-2011. Many have never before been seen by the public or outside of New York City. One of America’s most important artists, Mr. Pearlstein will celebrate his 90th birthday and a nearly 75-year career in 2014. Since 1955, his work has been included in more than 140 solo and over 300 group exhibitions. He is represented in more than 70 public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Especially known for his large-scale nudes posed “Pearlstein lives to paint,” according to guest curator Patterson in the studio, he has also painted extraordinary portraits, Sims. The artist is pictured in his New York studio. landscapes, and historic monuments and sites. ©Osamu Kobayashi Distinguished independent curator Patterson Sims has developed the exhibition with the full participation of the artist and the Betty Cuningham Gallery in New York. He has worked closely with Hazel and William Hough Chief Curator Jennifer Hardin and the MFA staff. Philip Pearlstein’s People, Places, Things was organized by the Museum. Excerpts from Philip Pearlstein’s The Process is My Goal First printed in the New York Times, October 31, 1976 My basic concerns are derived from abstraction. I think of my work as post- abstract realism ... Around 1960, I turned away from emotionally-charged expressionism. At that time the nude human figure as a constellation of still-life forms became my usual subject; previously it had been landscape. I extended this attitude into portraiture early, at first portraits of friends and my children, and then occasional commissioned portraits. My development of the painting is always the Philip Pearlstein (American, born 1924) cloning process – reproducing the image detail Entrance to Lincoln Tunnel, Daytime (1992) by detail ... Oil on canvas Collection of the Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan Gift of Mrs. Cecil Boksenbom, by exchange 3 Part of the experiencing of works of esthetic value involves mesmerization, self-induced by staring at the object, allowing the ocular nerves to relax from their ordinary analytical viewing. Tuning the world out, an emptying of one’s mind ... I stare at the model. Each detail of the form as I transcribe it into paint fills my entire field of visual and mental experience. The final result in paint, of course, is controlled by the physicality of my effort to re-create the look of the forms on their space that is in front of me. I never change the result to make the drawing academically correct. I trust my eyes. My painting experience is so intensely felt that my portrait subjects can, and sometimes do, ask whose ego is involved, theirs or mine. My painting technique (which is my ego asserting itself) allows me only to depict what I see at a given moment. It is outside my concerns at that moment to deal with the sitter’s concerns of how he wishes to be seen (his ego assertion) ... In this tradition, to which I relate myself, the primary experience Walter Rosenblum (American, 1919-2006) is the artist’s. The performing of the technical acts of painting and Hopscotch, 105th St. New York City (1952) of sculpture, in techniques devised by the artists to allow them to Gelatin silver print Museum Purchase with funds provided by William and Carol A. Upham conduct their search, is the end-all ... My sitters have only lent Courtesy of Nina Rosenblum me their faces. represented are Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, Aaron Siskind, Weegee, and Garry Winogrand. Photographing the City The earliest image is an albumen print, Panorama of Paris Through Sunday, May 26 (1852) by Edouard Baldus, one of the great photographers of architecture and monuments. Photographing the City has many Photography and industrialized cities developed together. albumen prints, one of the first photographic processes, as Photographers have preserved history, while influencing how well as two striking cyanotypes, with their blue cast, of The people perceive their cities and towns. Among the artists Paris Exposition of 1900 by Albert Levy. The most recent image is Garry Winogrand’s famous 1970 photograph of people gathering in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, from his series Women are Beautiful. Photographing the City grew out of a fall 2012 graduate seminar at the University of South Florida Tampa. Half of the classes were taught at the Museum—a first. Katherine Bussard, Associate Curator of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago and Eminent Guest Scholar, Kennedy Family Artists- in-Residence Endowment, was the instructor. Many of the images are from The Ludmila Dandrew and Chitranee Drapkin Collection. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the exhibition through the Flickr project, “Photographing My City.” The students and Museum curatorial staff are monitoring this virtual exhibition— another first for the MFA. A slide show of these additional photographs runs continuously in the Works on Paper Unknown Photographer (American, active early twentieth century) Gallery. President Wilson and His Party Arriving at Columbus, Ohio (1919) Gelatin silver print Gift of Dr. Robert L. and Chitranee Drapkin from The Ludmila Dandrew and Chitranee Drapkin Collection 4 MFA Receives Visionary’s Work More than 100 photographs by Ralph Eugene Meatyard were recently donated to the MFA by his brother Jerry. Meatyard is represented in the collections of the International Museum of Photography, the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Walker Art Center, among many others. Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925- 1972) began a career as an optician, working for a firm that also sold camera equipment. He Ralph Eugene Meatyard (American, purchased his first camera in 1950 to 1925-1972) photograph his newborn son. When Untitled (1959) he established his own practice, Gelatin silver print Eyeglasses of Kentucky in Lexington, Gift of Jerry Meatyard ©The Estate of Ralph he displayed his own photographs, as Eugene Meatyard, well as those by Emmet Gowin, Van courtesy Fraenkel Deren Coke, and Roy DeCarava in Gallery, San Francisco his workplace. Pleasure Grounds and In 1955, his photography rose to a new level when he and Coke produced the series Restoring Spaces: Photographs Georgetown Street, documenting African American life in this Lexington neighborhood.