Stories for May 2009

Collecting African American Art

May 29, 2009

Dr. Walter O. Evans. Dr. Walter O. Evans, named one of 'America's Top 100 Collectors' by Art & Antiques magazine in 2006, spoke the other night as part of the Collectors' Roundtable series on "Collecting outside the Canon." He began...

In Memoriam: Sam Maloof (1916-2009)

May 27, 2009

Sam Maloof's Rocker As I'm writing this quick post so that we can ask those of you who knew Sam Maloof, or just admired his work, to share your stories about him, I'm surprised at how hard it is. I...

Night at the American Art Museum

May 22, 2009

American Art's Meet Me at Midnight With the release of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, moviegoers will get a look at some of the most popular objects in the Smithsonian's collections—such as Amelia Earhart's airplane, Dorothy's ruby...

Roz Chast on Charles Addams: Laughter, Tears, and Boiling Oil

May 19, 2009

Renowned New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast was the fourth and final speaker in this year's American Pictures Distinguished Lecture Series and often had the crowded auditorium in stitches. Like many people, I came to love Chast's work through the pages...

Shin Exhibition Backstory: Trophy Lives

May 14, 2009

Nancy's Donated Trophy The other night, my friend Nancy was heading over to American Art to see the Jean Shin exhibition that had just opened. Last year she had answered Shin's call for trophies from local residents. (I heard Shin...

Picture This: Morans on the Move

May 8, 2009

Moving the Morans: a monumental task. Photo by Gene Young. Staff at the museum have been working all week to carefully orchestrate moving a suite of monumental landscape paintings by Thomas Moran out of the Grand Salon at the museum's...

The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene

May 7, 2009

The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene, on view at the Renwick Gallery now through June 7, 2009 In the early years of the twentieth century, brothers Charles and Henry Greene created some of the most original and important...

Jamaica Kincaid on Being Kept In

May 5, 2009

Edward Lamson Henry, Kept In, 1889, oil, 14" x 18", Fenimore Art Museum, New York State Historical Association On a recent Saturday afternoon writer Jamaica Kincaid offered ninety minutes of personal remembrances in one of the most interesting and heartfelt...

Paik for Everyone

May 1, 2009

Nam June Paik with his televisions, 1991, © Nam June Paik Studios, Inc. The American Art Museum has dedicated quite a bit of floor space to the incredible works of Nam June Paik, who is often called the "father of...