Media
Countdown to Gift Giving 2012: Day 20
We are starting this year’s countdown with something every gift-buyer needs: wrapping paper.
Don’t just wrap your presents in generic paper this holiday season! These exciting designs are the by-products of creating fine art and are actual photos taken of surfaces in the artists’ studios. Alternatively, if animal prints are more your style, we have that too. The Akron Art Museum is the exclusive venue in Ohio to carry this all-occasion, high quality paper from Wrapped LA.
Countdown to Gift Giving 2012
You could spend countless hours in a crowded mall or scouring the Internet for appropriate gifts. Or, you can check out the Countdown to Gift Giving 2012, with its daily items between Black Friday and December 12 (the last day the store can guarantee delivery of gifts before Christmas).
These exciting gifts include works of art, jewelry, games and much, much more. Stop in the store or call 330.376.9186 x280 to place your orders by December 12. If the galleries are open, so is the store. In addition to this countdown, the Museum Store also makes shopping easier and more inspirational with the Fifth Annual Holiday mART on December 6, 2012.
The new item will be available around 11 am daily and each Monday we will update the Countdown to Gift Giving 2012 page (in the navigation bar) with the previous week’s items. You can also view the items by clicking the Countdown to Gift Giving tag (on the right-hand side of the page after the Facebook widget).
Read MorePhotographic Masks from the Collection
By: Eric Parrish, Curatorial Research Assistant
In the spirit of Halloween, the Akron Art Museum offers its patrons a slideshow of photographic masks ranging from the literal to the abstract. You can also visit many of these works at www.AkronArtMuseum.org/collection.
Perhaps the most innocent mask-wearers in the collection are the three young children – depicted wearing paper cut-out masks and standing patiently on a door-step – in Helen Levitt’s New York (1939). In contrast, Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s 1960 photograph of a boy with a masked face and heavy, over-sized hands takes on an ambiguously melancholy air—a world-weariness we normally associate with adulthood. Edouard Boubat’s Fêtes des morts, Mexique 1980, which depicts the Day of the Dead celebrations on November 1, shows a masked boy placing a candle on a grave. Ken Heyman’s depiction of two young trick-or-treaters in Children in masks, Hotel Belvedere in background, NY provides an interesting counterpart to Levitt’s photograph from a quarter century earlier.
Of course, children aren’t the only ones in the collection wearing masks. Heyman’s Man with mask and black robe in [sic] Halloween, New York (1984) depicts a man dressed as what appears to be a sunglasses-wearing witch. Similarly, Leon Levinstein’s untitled and undated photograph depicts a pair of masked revelers in a delightfully seedy Times Square. In The Masquerader (1985), Penny Rakoff brilliantly uses color to create a mysterious dream-like atmosphere surrounding the masked woman of the title. The same year master-photographer Cindy Sherman created a photograph (Untitled) which somehow defies any attempt at adequate description; it must be seen.
Clarence John Laughlin’s evocatively-titled The Masks Grow to Us (1950) portrays a much more metaphorical kind of mask—one that hints at the complex relationship between masks and identity. Similarly, Amy Jenkins’s Untitled XLIII (43) (1994) is a surrealist tableau that includes a face embedded in the eye of another face. Lotte Jacobi’s beautifully ethereal Mask takes this motif fully into the realm of abstraction.
There are several other photographs in the collection that evoke Halloween. Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s 1966 photograph Untitled [Arched doorway with ghost] combines photographic techniques of erasure with an institutional setting to suggest a ghostly figure wandering through an abandoned hospital or penitentiary. Finally, Joan Liftin’s gorgeous color photograph “Psycho,” Kentucky (1984) juxtaposes the warmth and intimacy of a drive-in theatre at twilight with a single projected frame (“Bates Motel / Vacancy”) of Alfred Hitchcock’s black -and-white horror masterpiece.
[slideshare id=14970891&w=427&h=356]
Studio Glass Movement
Take a peek inside a glass studio in this short video chronicling the humble beginnings of the Studio Glass Movement in a Toledo, Ohio garage under the guidance of Harvey Littleton and Dominick Labino. Learn more about the rise of the studio glass workshop in 1962 and get a look at several beautiful pieces made throughout the history of the movement.
Stop into the museum to view our collection of glass sculptures by Paul Stankard and current exhibition New Artifacts: Works by Brent Kee Young and Sungsoo Kim on view through April 7, 2013.
Become A Member!
By Corey Jenkins, Communications Intern
Membership matters! The Akron Art Museum showcases regional, national and international art from 1850 to present day. In addition to the collection and exhibitions, the museum offers many opportunities for community members of all ages to discover new perspectives through concerts, films, lectures and workshops.
The various levels of membership offer many perks including free gallery admission, member magazine subscription, special discounts (including discounts in the museum store) and parking privileges.
Your museum membership ensures that the museum will be here for future generations to enjoy. Visit https://akronartmuseum.wpengine.com/genmemberships/ today to make a difference in your community and discover new perspectives.
Read MoreThe Q Is Blue!
By Corey Jenkins, Communications Intern
One of the first things visitors to the museum see is Claes Oldenburg’s bright pink sculpture Inverted Q. However if you are Vincent van Gogh, who one vision expert believes suffered from “protanopia,” the Q would appear to be blue.
The Chromatic Vision Simulator app for iOS/Android was developed by Japanese vision expert, Kazunori Asad. After viewing some of Van Gogh’s pieces in an exhibition where the lighting and environment was designed to display pieces the way a colorblind person sees them, he noticed that Van Gogh’s work artwork hinted at “protanopia,” the absence or malfunction of the cells in the retina which recognize the color red.
Typically, people have three types of Cone cells in the retina. Each type is responsible for sensing red, green or blue light. Color blindness is caused by an absence or malfunction of one of these cone types. The Chromatic Vision Simulator gives an approximation of “protanopia” the lack of a red cone; “deuteranopia,” the lack of a green cone; and “tritanopia,” the lack of a blue cone.
Last Downtown@Dusk of the Summer ft. Zydeco Kings
Thursday, August 9
6:30 – 9:30 pm
Come see the Zydeco Kings perform live at the Akron Art Museum on Thursday from 6:30 – 8:30 pm as part of the museum’s popular Downtown@Dusk concert series. Also enjoy a lecture from Collection Manager Arnold Tunstall, ArtCamp@Dusk for the kids, hot dogs and a cold beer from Elevator Brewing for adults. This is the LAST Downtown@Dusk of the season and is also a great chance to purchase work from local artists.
The Zydeco Kings have been celebrating the music of Louisiana for more than twelve years. The band consists of five members playing variety of instruments to create an old school rhythm and blues sound. Popular instruments like the guitar, drums, piano and bass are used, but different instruments such as rubboard and accordion are incorporated. This creates a unique sound that makes the band stand out. The Zydeco Kings play all over Northeast Ohio and on local news stations.
In honor of 90 years as a museum, Tunstall will breeze through artwork from the collection representing each of those years from 1922 to now. Not a historical highlight of familiar works, but a whirlwind tour through art historical movements and regional interests represented chronologically by our museum’s objects.
The Museum Store at the Akron Art Museum is happy to host regional artists Bili Kribbs, Morgan Mzik and Todd Jakubsin who will be selling their paintings, prints and sculptures onsite during ArtSale@Dusk. Sorry members, but member discounts are not applicable on consignment items.
Bili Kribbs resides is Massillon and thinks that imagination is important for the human psyche. Escape from reality, day dreaming, fantasy… all these things help us hold on to our youthfulness and are why Kribbs makes art.
Morgan Mzik’s motivation for her artwork comes from a desire to understand the self and fully appreciate the world around her.
Todd Jakubisin has a passion for telling stories both verbally and visually highlighted with considerable emotion. Jakubisin prefers to take his time in portraying sweeping complexities with simple strokes while using shadows both figuratively and literally to stimulate the viewers’ imagination.
Concert goers may also visit the museum galleries to view Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, Robert Stivers: Veiled Image and The Anniversary Show: Commemorative Art Through the Years during the evening. Gallery admission is required. For detailed information on this and other museum events, visit the calendar of events at www.AkronArtMuseum.org/calendar.
Downtown@Dusk 2012 is made possible by The City of Akron. It is presented in cooperation with 89.7 WKSU.
ArtTalks@Dusk are made possible by a gift from the Sam & Kathy Salem Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Community Board of Akron.
ArtCamp@Dusk is made possible by a gift from the Harris-Stanton Gallery.
Read MoreDowntown@Dusk ft. 15 60 75 The Numbers Band
Come see 15 60 75 The Numbers Band perform live at the Akron Art Museum Thursday from 6:30 – 8:30 pm as part of the museum’s popular Downtown@Dusk concert series. Also enjoy a lecture from Interim Chief Curator Ellen Rudolph, ArtCamp@Dusk for the kids, hot dogs and a cold beer from Elevator Brewing for adults.
Simply called The Numbers Band by their fans, band founder Robert Kidney said the band name is taken from a Numbers Racket, a method of analyzing dreams as number sequences then used to place bets popular in Harlem in the 1950’s, mentioned in Paul Oliver’s book, “The Blues Fell This Morning.”
Much like their unconventional name, The Numbers Band’s music stands outside society’s traditional expectations and definitions of Rock ‘n Roll. The majority of the band records were financed by friends who loved their music. Even after 30 years and eight records, The Numbers Band has never been offered a contract from a recording company.
One of the most challenging and exhilarating aspects of working with the art of El Anatsui is that it does not come with any instructions. Anatsui wants his works to be different each time they are installed, reflecting his embrace of the ever-changing nature of life. Hear about the process of envisioning and installing the works in Gravity and Grace, including false starts, re-do’s and improvisations.
Bring the kids down for the first ArtCamp@Dusk! Children7-12 years old will explore fun and wacky hands-on art making in the museum classroom. Registration is required for members and nonmembers. Sign-up today at http://akronartmuseum.ticketleap.com/artcampdusk/#view=calendar.
Concert goers may also visit the museum galleries to view Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui, Robert Stivers: Veiled Image and The Anniversary Show: Commemorative Art Through the Years during the evening. Gallery admission is required. For detailed information on this and other museum events, visit the calendar of events at www.AkronArtMuseum.org/calendar.
Downtown@Dusk 2012 is made possible by The City of Akron. It is presented in cooperation with 89.7 WKSU.
ArtTalks@Dusk are made possible by a gift from the Sam & Kathy Salem Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Community Board of Akron.
ArtCamp@Dusk is made possible by a gift from the Harris-Stanton Gallery.
Read More‘Friends and Family event at Akron Art Museum July 26-29
From Thursday, July 26, through Sunday, July 29, University of Akron faculty, staff, students and retirees, who already have free admission to the museum, can bring up to three friends or family members to the museum for free. To take advantage of the offer, just show your Zip Card.
Downtown@Dusk ft. The Speedbumps
Thursday, July 26
6:30 – 8:30 pm
*Update: All Downtown@Dusk activities for 07.26.12 have been moved inside due to the weather.*
Come see The Speedbumps perform live at the Akron Art Museum Thursday from 6:30 – 8:30 pm as part of the museum’s popular Downtown@Dusk concert series. Also enjoy a lecture from artist Al Bright, ArtCamp@Dusk for the kids, hot dogs and a cold beer from Elevator Brewing for adults.
Maintaining a high level of instrumentation and honest songwriting, Kent-area band the Speedbumps incorporate a combination of hollow-bodied instruments like cello, upright bass, ukulele, and acoustic guitar to create an eclectic but approachable sound. The band’s intelligent yet organic feel has given them the opportunity to perform with Amos Lee, Matt Nathanson, OK GO, Chrissie Hynde and Andrew Bird.
In 1978 Youngstown artist Al Bright did a live performance at the Akron Art Institute. 34 years later, Bright returned to the Akron Art Museum, creating a masterful Abstract Expressionist style painting to the musical accompaniment of the Jesse Dandy Trio. This work is currently on view as part of The Anniversary Show: Commemorative Art Through the Years. Bright will speak about his experiences performing at the museum and everything that happened in between.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5GBnqUiFMA”]
Bring the kids down for the first ArtCamp@Dusk! Children7-12 years old will explore fun and wacky hands-on art making in the museum classroom. Registration is required for members and nonmembers. Sign-up today at http://akronartmuseum.ticketleap.com/artcampdusk/#view=calendar.
Concert goers may also visit the museum galleries to view Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui and The Anniversary Show: Commemorative Art Through the Years during the evening. Gallery admission is required. For detailed information on this and other museum events, visit the calendar of events at www.AkronArtMuseum.org/calendar.
Downtown@Dusk 2012 is made possible by The City of Akron. It is presented in cooperation with 89.7 WKSU.
ArtTalks@Dusk are made possible by a gift from the Sam & Kathy Salem Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Community Board of Akron.
ArtCamp@Dusk is made possible by a gift from the Harris-Stanton Gallery.
Read More