Anderson Bids for Overpriced Leonardo, Reassessing Art of the Possible at DMA
The Dallas Museum of Art has scraped together a sizable pile of money from donors and made what Director Maxwell Anderson calls “a very reasonable offer” for a painting which is estimated to be in the $200 million range, but Anderson’s quotes in D Magazine are full of breaking-it-gently phrases: “there are certain things you [...]
New Stamp Collection Commemorates 1913 Armory Show, Includes Murphy’s Razor From DMA
The ever-ready PR department at the Dallas Museum of Art informs us that one of their pieces, Gerald Murphy’s 1924 Razor, will be featured on a postage stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armory Show in New York, credited with introducing modern art to America. The piece is one of twelve works featured in [...]
CultureGrrl Casts Doubts on DMA’s New Free Admission Policy
In a post yesterday in CultureGrrl, blogger Lee Rosenbaum nitpicks the new free-admission policy at the Dallas Museum of Art. In support of her fears that dropping admission charges will be financially unsustainable, she cavils that DMA director Maxwell Anderson’s claim that museums in general derive 4% of their operating income from admission charges is [...]
Dallas Museum of Art to Offer Free Membership And Free Admission Starting in January
The Dallas Museum of Art announced yesterday that it will return to free general admission in January 2013 and launch an unusual new free-membership plan. The new program, DMA Friends & Partners, approaches membership as a means of engaging visitors, emphasizing participation over the typical cash-n-carry membership model common among museums. Here’s how it works: [...]
Sit’n'Surf: National Grant Will Fund New Learning Lab at DMA
The Dallas Museum of Art has received a grant of $94,681 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to build a “Learning Lab,” described as “a new space where young people can connect with mentors and peers, using new media and traditional materials,” the [...]
Texas Museums’ Islamic Art Coups Part of Larger Educational Effort
The Business Insider reports on the new, $125 million Islamic art wing at the Louvre in Paris as part of an effort by museums internationally to educate western viewers on Muslim cultures as an antidote to relentless negative news since 9/11. $20 million for the Louvre’s 10-year project came from Saudi Prince Alwaleed [...]
DMA Hires Al Khemir to Promote Global Islamic Art Exchanges, MFAH Announces Its Islamic Art Partnership and Loan of 85-carat Engraved Emerald
The Dallas Museum of Art has appointed Sabiha Al Khemir, the founding director of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, as the Museum’s first Senior Advisor of Islamic Art. Beginning immediately, Dr. Al Khemir will help build partnerships with international art institutions to promote the exchange of Islamic works, and work to enhance [...]
Trapezoidal Rock is Smoking Gun in DMA Inness Attribution
The Dallas Museum of Art decided last week that a painting given to the museum in 1931 as painter Asher B. Durand’s “In The Woods” is actually a much nicer painting by George Inness titled “Stream in the Mountains.” There have been doubts about the unsigned painting’s authorship since the 1940′s, but it was sharp [...]
Surprise! Old Texas Art Has National Audience-DMA Texas Webpages Draw Interest
The new Texas art section of the DMA’s website got kudos from ArtsJournal blogger Judith H. Dobrzynski for making a stab at telling a regional story, counter to what she calls “cookie-cutter approaches to buying art” that blights many institutions.
2012 Dallas Video Festival
The end of September hailed the 25th anniversary of the Dallas Video Festival. Changing the venue to the Dallas Museum of Art proved to be a smart move. Despite the bad storms, attendance was up from the previous year at the Angelika. Artistic Director Bart Weiss outdid himself yet again. The programming combined innovative, edgy [...]
Deep in the Art of Texas: DMA Adds Texas Art and Artist Pages to Website-Archives Back to 1909
The Dallas Museum of Art has added a complete listing of its Texas Art Exhibitions to its website, creating a mine of information on regional art back when it was spelled with a capital R. The list includes titles and dates for all exhibitions of Texas art presented at the Museum since 1909. The Texas [...]
You Can Check it Out Any Time You Like: Hotel Texas Exhibit Re-unites Art From Fateful 1963 Kennedy Visit
In November of 1963, a group of prominent Fort Worth citizens put together a collection of modern art to decorate President John F. Kennedy’s suite at the Texas Hotel in Fort Worth in the days just before his assassination. In May 2013, the Dallas Museum of art, in association with the Amon Carter Museum, is [...]
Four Directors are Better Than One: Anne Bergeron New Associate Director of External Affairs at DMA
DMA Director Maxwell Anderson has announced the appointment of powerhouse fundraiser Anne Bergeron as the Museum’s Associate Director of External Affairs, effective November 5. A twenty year veteran of top-level nonprofit fundraising, as owner and principal of Anne Bergeron & Co. Consulting LLC, based in New York and Providence, RI, Bergeron has worked for Historic [...]
Maxwell Anderson: He’s a Good Guy
DMA Director Maxwell Anderson was praised in the Dallas Morning News for his stance against blockbusters, his ethical transparency, and his positive attitude. The article, basically a collection of accolades from colleagues and media sources, was written by the Morning News’ Micheal Granberry, apparently on the occasion of the opening of the DMA’s Plumed Serpent [...]
Leonardo as Salvator Mundi: Star Power AND Solidity Can the DMA Have it All, For A Price?
Art in America reports that the Dallas Museum of art is considering the purchase of a painting newly attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci for an estimated $200 million, and actually has the artwork in Dallas. Christ as Salvator Mundi, a frontal figure of Jesus holding a crystal orb and passing a benediction was painted circa [...]
Museums Protest Exhibition-Killing Copyright Ruling By US Court
The Dallas Museum of Art has joined the Association of Museum Directors, LACMA, MOCA, MOMA, the Getty, and many other museums in opposing a recent ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that removes copyright protections for works created outside the United States. In a bizarre counter-intuitive twist (revealed on page [...]
Nobuo Sekine at the DMA
In a little carved out space of the Hoffman Galleries at the DMA, there are three pieces by Japanese artist Nobuo Sekine, founder of the Mono-ha Movement (mono-ha translates to “school of things”) that are wonderful, on view through September 2. I had heard that the Rachofskys were amassing work by post-war Japanese artists, and here’s a bit [...]
DMA Gets $300,000 to Develop Digital Media Projects
The Dallas Museum of Art has received $300,000 to support the creation of a Laboratory for Museum Innovation, which will produce digital media for museum visitors.Actually, it’s three gifts, from AT&T, the Texas Instruments Foundation, and Forrest and Cynthia Miller. The new media lab will be headed by Robert Stein, developer of ArtBabble.org, TAP, and [...]