Exhibition Schedule 2012–2013

Herb Ritts, Doug and Mike Starn, and Edward Henry Potthast

CINCINNATI, OH – May 23, 2012. Iconic celebrity photographs; a tribute to a beloved benefactor; an installation that stretches art into the night and is so vibrant it needs its own space and light; and a first exhibition of its kind exploring the full range of American impressionist art by Cincinnati native Henry Edward Potthast: The Cincinnati Art Museum is pleased to announce the upcoming 2012–2013 Exhibition season.

“In keeping with recent programming that has generated record-setting attendance, the Art Museum has again produced a remarkably eclectic slate of exhibitions this year,” said Chief Curator James Crump. “There is literally something that will appeal to everyone that passes through our doors, and admission is free!”

Marjorie Schiele Prize, Sarah Vanderlip: Drawings for Sculpture of Building

September 29, 2012–December 9, 2012

Sarah Vanderlip is the inaugural winner of the Marjorie Schiele Prize.  An exhibition of her series of graphite and silvered Mylar drawings on paper entitled Drawings for Sculpture of Buildings will open the Cincinnati Art Museum exhibition calendar in September.  Drawings for Sculpture of Buildings utilizes architectural renderings as fresh points for departure. A sculptor by training, Vanderlip’s work exploits the rich relationships that exist between media. Additional details about the installation will be announced at a later date.

The triennial Marjorie Schiele Prize award honors the work and legacy of Marjorie Schiele, a Cincinnati artist whose generous bequest established it.

Marjorie Schiele (1913–2008): Artist, Expatriate, Benefactor

September 29–December 9, 2012 

Curated by Cincinnati Art Museum Director Emeritus, Millard Rogers

This exhibition of paintings and drawings by Marjorie Schiele pays tribute to this artist, expatriate, and benefactor and provides an opportunity to view a selection of her work that will join the Museum’s major collection of Cincinnati artists.  Schiele was Cincinnati-born and educated but lived most of her life in Paris and Monte Carlo.  Schiele studied art in France and traveled extensively until she fled from Europe to New York in 1940 during the Second World War.  In New York she became a student and assistant to the French painter and writer Amédée Ozenfant, where she was introduced to a band of expatriate artists including Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Marcel Duchamp, Lyonel Feininger, and Max Ernst, amongst other notables.  Schiele returned to France in 1952 and exhibited her paintings in both solo and group exhibitions but never forgot her Cincinnati roots.  She created an endowment to benefit the Cincinnati Art Museum, from which the Marjorie Schiele Prize was established.  The Prize will support an exhibition of paintings and sculpture by a living artist triennially.

Herb Ritts: L.A. Style 

October 6–December 30, 2012 

Curated by Paul Martineau for the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

(Chief Curator James Crump is hosting this exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum)

This exhibition has been organized by the J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Herb Ritts (1952–2002) revolutionized fashion photography, modernized the nude, and transformed celebrities into icons. Through hard work and a distinctive vision, he fashioned himself into one of the top photographers to emerge from the 1980s. Ritts' aesthetic incorporated facets of life in and around Los Angeles. He often made use of the bright California sunlight to produce bold contrasts, and his preference for outdoor locations such as the desert and the beach helped to separate his work from that of his New York-based peers. L.A. Style presents Ritts’ intimate portraiture, his modern yet classical treatment of the nude, and his innovative approach to fashion which brought him international acclaim and placed him securely within an American tradition of portrait and magazine photography that includes Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Irving Penn. Ritts’ images that bridged the gap between art and commerce are not only a testament to the power of his imagination and technical skill, but also the synergistic union between art, popular culture, and business that followed in the wake of the Pop Art movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Doug and Mike Starn: Gravity of Light 

October 6–December 30, 2012 

Holy Cross Church at the Mount Adams Monastery 

Curated by Chief Curator James Crump, Co-Chair of FOTOFOCUS

Since well before the Renaissance, light has been used for and understood as a metaphor for illumination, spiritual or intellectual. In Gravity of Light, extraordinary contemporary artists, Doug and Mike Starn present a compilation of five series of photographs that extend this classical metaphor. Central to the exhibition is an arc lamp whose precise bright light mimics the sun. Equal parts sculpture, scientific experiment and photography, Gravity of Light is an interactive and immersive off-site installation. The Starns’ art does not hold the world in suspension as an object for contemplation but rather suspends the viewer in a chamber of sensorial and experiential discovery rendering each of us conductors; absorbers and emitters of the universe’s energy.

Toulouse-Lautrec and the Spectacles of Paris 

October 13, 2012–January 13, 2013 

Curated by Curator of Prints, Kristin Spangenberg

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, one of the greatest draftsmen of the 1890s, is important for his mastery of line, his innovative use of flat color, and incisive commentary on his contemporary social milieu.  His posters for the nocturnal amusements of Paris with their sweeping lines and bold areas of color and patterns were heavily influenced by Japanese prints.  This exhibition demonstrates Toulouse-Lautrec’s move into popular culture with a love of character and the artist’s flair for color lithography. On view in his striking images for public consumption, such as advertisements, posters and illustrations are the lively dance hall performers, poets and denizens of the Paris demimonde at the end of the nineteenth century.

James Welling: Monograph, February 2, 2013–May 5, 2013

Curated by Chief Curator, James Crump

Artist James Welling has created beautiful and challenging photographs for over thirty-five years. Operating in the hybrid ground between painting and sculpture and traditional photography, he is a foremost photographic practitioner enthralled with the possibilities of the medium. Since the mid-1970s, Welling's practice has unflaggingly shifted to address an impressive array of issues and ideas: the tenets of realism and transparency, abstraction and representation, optics and description, personal and cultural memory, and the material and chemical nature of photography. His output helps refine our definition of a photograph while offering a meaningful new paradigm for contemporary art. Monograph is the first comprehensive exhibition of this singular artist.

Eternal Summer: The Art of Edward Henry Potthast 

June 8, 2013–September 8, 2013

Curated by Curator of American Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings, Julie Aronson

Cincinnati native Edward Henry Potthast is celebrated for his sun-filled paintings of Americans at the shore. This exhibition of ninety works is the first to explore the full range of this American Impressionist’s art, featuring alongside his famous beach pictures, portrayals of European peasants and agricultural laborers, harbor views, landscapes and portraits. With sketchbooks, watercolors, pastels, prints, and oil paintings, the exhibition will reveal his accomplishments across media, from studies to finished works of art.

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About the Cincinnati Art Museum

Hours of operation are Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Art Museum is closed on Mondays. The Art Museum is FREE, EVERYDAY!  The Art Museum is located at 953 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45202. For general information, call (513) 639-2995 or visit www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org.

The Cincinnati Art Museum is supported by the generosity of individuals and businesses that give annually to the Arts Wave. The Ohio Arts Council helped fund the Cincinnati Art Museum with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. The Cincinnati Art Museum gratefully acknowledges operating support from the City of Cincinnati, as well as our members.