Museum book wins national award

https://georgiamuseum.org/press_release/museum-book-wins-national-award/

Friday, June 4, 2021

By: Kathrin Merritt

Athens, GA — The Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia has received an honorable mention from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards in the art category for its exhibition catalogue “Master, Pupil, Follower: 16th- to 18th-Century Italian Works on Paper.” This fully illustrated publication of important works of Italian art was also shortlisted for the Hoffer’s grand prize and is a finalist in the Foreword INDIES for art books. It was designed by the Brooklyn-based firm Morcos Key.

The exhibition “Master, Pupil, Follower” was on display at the Georgia Museum of Art from December 2019 through March 2020. The book features illustrations and entries for each of the 32 works in the exhibition by co-curators Robert Randolf Coleman, Nelda Damiano and Benedetta Spadaccini as well as Sonia Couturier. It also features essays by Coleman and museum director William Underwood Eiland. Among the objects included are prints and drawings by artists Giulio Benso, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Salvator Rosa and followers of Veronese and Tintoretto. The museum has received several honorable mentions from the Hoffer Awards as well as a first-place prize in 2017 for “Icon of Modernism: Representing the Brooklyn Bridge, 1883 – 1950” and the award for academic press in 2010 for “The American Scene on Paper: Prints and Drawings from the Schoen Collection.”

Damiano, the museum’s Pierre Daura Curator of European Art, said, “We are grateful for this honorable mention from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards, which underscores the importance of scholarly publications. This catalogue allowed us to make known works on paper in our permanent collection, and in the collections of two important patrons, Giuliano Ceseri and Jeffrey Horvitz.”

The Eric Hoffer Book Awards for Small, Academic and Independent Books highlights works from all genres of literature and helps publishers and authors alike gain exposure. The awards are geared toward notable and independent writing with hundreds of nominees annually.

Kota Ezawa reenvisions missing masterpieces

https://georgiamuseum.org/press_release/kota-ezawa-reenvisions-missing-masterpieces/

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

By: Kathrin Merritt

Over 30 years ago, thieves disguised as police officers entered Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tied up the night guards and stole paintings, including ones by Rembrandt, Manet, Degas and Vermeer. Despite this act being one of the largest art heists in history, the case remains cold and the art is still missing.

The traveling exhibition “Kota Ezawa: The Crime of Art” will be on display at the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia from July 17 until December 5, 2021. The exhibition includes 13 works of art that pay homage to the objects stolen during the Gardner Museum heist in 1990.

The California-based artist Kota Ezawa uses light boxes, color-blocked graphics and video animation to re-create the missing masterpieces. Although his re-creations are simplified, they remain instantly recognizable, which illustrates the hold that certain images have over viewers. The museum heist has resurfaced in pop culture through the Netflix series “This Is a Robbery,” which explains the evidence found to date.

Ezawa uses paintings by famous artists to create images that are both original and not original simultaneously. Much of his work provides commentary on how modern media “steals” art and ideas by blurring the lines between what is private property and what is public knowledge. As a result, crime is a recurring theme.

Dr. Nelda Damiano, the museum’s Pierre Daura Curator of European Art and the in-house curator for this exhibition, said, “It is always interesting to see a dialogue between past and present and to have a contemporary artist like Kota Ezawa take on the idea of appropriation and originality. I was especially intrigued by the artist’s statement about this project: ‘I feel compelled to produce an exhibition dealing with “stolen artworks” because my own process could be regarded as a form of image theft. One could say I’m hoping to steal these images back and give them a new life.’”

This exhibition was organized by SITE Santa Fe with the Mead Art Museum.

Related events include:

• A talk by Kota Ezawa on September 7 at the museum

• A Family Day To-Go September 9 – 12, as part of which families can pick up free art kits and an activity guide at the museum

• A film series September 16, 23 and 30, showing the movies “Stolen,” “How to Steal a Million” and “Topkapi” at the museum

• Toddler Tuesday on September 21 at the museum for ages 18 months to 3 years (email sagekincaid@uga.edu to sign up)

• Student Week, organized by the Georgia Museum of Art Student Association and running September 23 – 26

• Teen Studio: Art Heist on September 23 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. (email sagekincaid@uga.edu to sign up)

• And a talk by Anthony Amore, director of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, on October 14 at 5:30 p.m.

All events are free and open to the public. Film series and Student Week are sponsored by the UGA Parents Leadership Council. Family Day To-Go kits are sponsored by Heyward Allen Motor Co., Inc., Heyward Allen Toyota and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.

Rabbit Box at Athens-Clarke County Library

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF9MZp-0h34

Video editing by Kathrin Merritt