Lady Gaga wows Milan crowd with Joanne tour 

Gaga gave a monologue on equality and then launched into “Edge of Glory”, dedicating it to her family and in particular to her cousins Antonino, Giuseppe and Maria Germanotta.    “Today I’m here with my whole family,” she said, seated at the piano.    “I met my Italian cousins for the first time; they came up from Sicily. I think about how my grandparents left such a beautiful place, of the sacrifices they made. Being here makes me feel like I’ve made them proud,” she said.

Source: Lady Gaga wows Milan crowd with Joanne tour – English – ANSA.it

In NY Italian American Museum sells three buildings in bid to expand 

The Italian American Museum has struck a deal to sell three buildings it owns on Grand Street to a development group that will build a bigger museum in the base of a residential condo the group plans to erect on the site.The museum, founded by Joseph Scelsa, a retired sociology professor at Queens College who specialized in Italian American history and research, will use the larger space to expand exhibitions and hold events.”This space will be all about the Italian-American experience,” Scelsa said. “We want to show the contributions to society and the art that Italian-Americans have made. We’ll have more room for galleries in this new facility, along with areas for classes, lectures and performances.”

Source: Italian American Museum sells three buildings in bid to expand | Crain’s New York Business

Italy’s Importance During Early History of Photography to be Focus of Exhibition at The Met

Opening March 13 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paradise of Exiles: Early Photography in Italy will focus on Italy’s importance as a center of exchange and experimentation during the first three decades of photography’s history—from 1839, the year of its invention, to 1871, the year Italy became a unified nation. The exhibition will highlight the little-known contribution of Italian photographers to the development of the new medium through some 35 photographs and albums drawn from The Met collection, along with 11 loans, including rare daguerreotypes and photographs related to the Risorgimento, the period of modern Italian unification.

Deemed a “Paradise of Exiles” by the British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Italy attracted not only 19th-century Romantics, but also many of photography’s earliest practitioners who traveled to the peninsula in order to capture its monuments and distinctive topography. At the same time, Italians adopted daguerreotypes and paper negatives as a means to represent their own cultural patrimony during a period of political upheaval.
The exhibition will explore key moments from this period—the simultaneous introduction of daguerreotypes and paper negatives into Italy; the international circle of photographers known as the Roman School; and the emergence of commercial studios—demonstrating how both foreign and local photographers working in close proximity re-imagined Italy’s architecture, landscapes, and people through the camera’s lens. An early daguerreotype of the Roman Forum, Giacomo Caneva’s study of a Roman peasant girl, and a studio portrait of Italy’s first king, Victor Emanuel II, invite a fresh perspective on Italy’s position within the early history of photography.

Paradise of Exiles: Early Photography in Italy is organized by Beth Saunders, Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

Exhibition Dates: March 13–August 13, 2017 
Exhibition Location: The Met Fifth Avenue, Gallery 852, The Howard Gilman Gallery

Mark Mazzetti del New York Times è il vincitore dell’Urbino Press Award 2016

Il giornalista del New York Times Mark Mazzetti è il vincitore, per il 2016, dell’Urbino Press Award, il premio italiano che ogni anno viene assegnato a un reporter o editorialista americano. L’annuncio ufficiale della vittoria verrà dato il 17 maggio dall’Ambasciatore d’Italia negli Stati Uniti Armando Varricchio nel corso di una cerimonia presso l’Ambasciata d’Italia a Washington. Come da tradizione, dopo l’annuncio a Washington il premio gli verrà consegnato nel corso di una cerimonia che si terrà nel corso dell’estate al Palazzo Ducale di Urbino.

mark-mazetti-2“La scelta di Mark Mazzetti come vincitore dell’Urbino Press Award 2016 testimonia il riconoscimento del valore dell’intraprendenza e del dinamismo giornalistico” ha commentato l’Ambasciatore d’Italia a Washington Armando Varricchio. “La partnership dell’Ambasciata con l’Urbino Press Award è il frutto di un’importante collaborazione che guarda al futuro del giornalismo e a come la politica estera viene raccontata al pubblico dei lettori, e Mazzetti si aggiunge quindi a una lista di importanti giornalisti americani che si sono anch’essi distinti nel campo dell’inchiesta giornalistica.”

Mark Mazzetti è corrispondente da Washington del The New York Times per il quale si occupa di sicurezza nazionale dal 2006. Prima di approdare al New York Times Mazzetti ha collaborato con il Los Angeles Times come staff writer, con U.S. News & World Report come corrispondente dal Pentagono e con The Economist come corrispondente da Washington DC. Un’indagine svolta nel 2009 con altri colleghi sull’intensificarsi delle violenze in Pakistan e Afghanistan e su come la politica americana ha reagito a tali violenze gli ha valso il Pulitzer Prize. Mark Mazzetti è autore del libro “The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth” pubblicato nel 2013.

“Quando oltre dieci anni fa, con Giovanni Lani, abbiamo ideato l’Urbino Press Award -dice Giacomo Guidi, fashion designer e co-fondatore del premio- abbiamo pensato, con il massimo sentimento filantropico, a un evento culturale che potesse creare qualcosa di utile per la città e il territorio. Credo che con il nostro impegno, e il contributo dei vari enti, si sia riusciti a costruire un vero ponte con gli Stati Uniti d’America. In questi anni i giornalisti premiati, firme d’eccellenza delle più prestigiose testate statunitensi, ci hanno portato una testimonianza straordinaria, raccontandoci i fatti di questo complicato decennio. Tutti ci hanno fatto capire che alla base del loro lavoro quotidiano, spesso in luoghi ad alto rischio, c’è l’imprescindibile impegno etico a informare il pubblico, con il massimo rispetto della verità. Questa è la grande lezione che i vincitori dell’Urbino Press Award, di edizione in edizione, hanno regalato alla città di Urbino.”

“Con grande convinzione -dice il sindaco di Urbino Maurizio Gambini- le istituzioni della città, con Urbino International Centre e il supporto della Regione Marche, hanno rinnovato il loro sostegno al premio destinato alla stampa statunitense, giunto all’undicesima edizione. Il fatto che il nome di Urbino sia abbinato a un’iniziativa culturale internazionale di così alto livello ci rende orgogliosi. L’Urbino Press Award è una grande occasione per tutto il territorio regionale. L’evento di Washington è una preziosissima opportunità per stringere contatti con i mezzi di informazione USA e i vari settori dell’economia nordamericana. L’appuntamento che poi segue, con la cerimonia di conferimento del premio nel Palazzo Ducale di Urbino, è sempre un passaggio emozionante, che ci consente di aprire lo sguardo sugli scenari internazionali della nostra epoca.”

L’Urbino Press Award, di cui è Presidente Giovanni Lani, annovera fra suoi precedenti vincitori Diane Rehm, Michael Weisskopf, Martha Raddatz, Thomas Friedman, David Ignatius, Helene Cooper, Sebastian Rotella, Wolf Blitzer, Maria Bartiromo e Gwenn Ifill. Il premio è reso possibile grazie al sostegno dell’Ambasciata d’Italia e dell’Istituto Italiano di Cultura Washington DC, dell’Istituto per il Commercio Estero (ICE), della casa di moda Piero Guidi, della Regione Marche, della Città di Urbino, dell’Urbino International Centre, e del Caseificio Val D’Apsa.

Sara’ l’Ambasciatore italiano negli Stati Uniti Armando Varricchio a dare l’annuncio ufficiale il 17 maggio presso l’Ambasciata d’Italia a Washington

Washington DC, 11 maggio 2016
Source: Italian Embassy, Washington
English version

“International Pop” at The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Remember the 1960s?  As the New Times art critic Holland Cotter wrote in his review of “International Pop” exhibit:  “Absolutely I remember, and the show —brash, manic and acid-tinged — took me right back there.”  We can tell you, that Cotter was absolutely right!

Mimmo Rotella "Hot Marilyn"

Mimmo Rotella “Hot Marilyn”

International Pop navigates a fast-paced world packed with bold and thought-provoking imagery, revealing a vibrant period shaped by social, political, and cultural changes. The exhibition chronicles Pop art’s emergence as an international movement, migrating from the UK and the US to western and eastern Europe, Latin America, and Japan. Although Pop arose in distinct forms within each region, artists expressed a shared interest in mass media, consumerism, and figuration.Focusing on work made from 1956 to 1972, the exhibition presents Pop art as a movement that is at turns celebratory, critical, and probing in its message. It reveals the energetic exchange that contributed to a reimagining of art’s relationship to societies in flux. American and British Pop is presented alongside lesser known but equally potent examples from Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France, Italy, Slovakia, Japan, and other creative centers.With 150 works, including paintings, sculptures, prints, collage, assemblage, installation, film, and ephemera, the exhibition highlights influential artists from twenty different countries. Among them are Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann, and Ed Ruscha (US); Richard Hamilton, Pauline Boty, Peter Blake, and Clive Barker (UK); Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, and Konrad Lueg (Germany); Ushio Shinohara, Keiichi Tanaami, and Osamu Tezuka (Japan); Hélio Oiticica, Wanda Pimentel, and Antonio Dias (Brazil); and Marta Minujín, Dalila Puzzovio, and Edgardo Giménez (Argentina).international-pop_tano-festa-8702

Los Angeles – Taormina Film Festival opens in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, the “City of the Angels”, hosts the first edition of the Taormina Film Festival (TTF) on Jan. 20 and 21, featuring Italian and Sicilian independent films. This event was made possible by an agreement between the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles, the Consulate General of Italy and the Italian Trade Commission (ICE). The screenings are hosted by the Italian Cultural Institute and attended by the authors of two docu-films, “L’ultimo metro di pellicola” (“The Last Metre of Film”) by Elio Sofia, and “Il carnevale eoliano” (“Aeolian Carnival”) by Francesco Cannava’. The documentary “Phil Stern. Sicilia 1943, la guerra e l’anima” (Philip Stern: Sicily in 1943, War and Soul”) written and directed by Ezio Costanzo with Filippo Arlotta, will also be screened.

Valeria Golino at Cannes 2015 (photo by Georges Biard)

Valeria Golino at Cannes 2015 (photo by Georges Biard)

“Phil Stern. Welcome back to Sicily “, a photo exhibition by Carmelo Nicosia will also be hosted by the Institute as a tribute to the famous American photographer, who died last year in Los Angeles at 95. The opening will coincide with the festival, and will be attended by Stern’s son Peter and his granddaughter Ashley. City councillor Joe Boscaino will attend the opening of the exhibiton and the screening of the documentary. He will present Peter Stern with a City of Los Angeles Award for the project “Phil Stern”, and Tiziana Rocca with , for the first TaorminaFilmFest Los Angeles.

Cecilia Peck, daughter of the unforgettable actor Gregory Peck, will present her docu-film “Brave Miss World” on the trauma of sexual violence, and host a party at her house in honour of the first TTF edition. The TaorminaFilmFest Los Angeles Award will be presented to Steven Gaydos, Executive Editor of Variety and actress Valeria Golino, who appeared in “Per amor vostro” (“For Your Love”) by Giuseppe Gaudino. The film will also be screened. Ms. Golino will be interviewed by Mr. Gaydos and Lorenzo Soria, the President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which every year organises the prestigious Golden Globes Awards.

As an aside note, recent news report indicate that Ms. Golino’s name “turned up on the most recent list of Americans who’ve given up their passports,” and her British agent is quotes as saying she “is going home for good.”

Rosa Barba: The Color Out of Space

Rosa Barba’s works encompassing sculptures, installations, text pieces, and publications are grounded in the material qualities of cinema. Her film sculptures examine the physical properties of the projector, celluloid, and projected light. Barba’s longer projected works are situated between experimental documentary and fictional narrative, and are indeterminately situated in the past or the future. These speculative stories probe into the relationship of historical record, personal anecdote, and filmic representation. For this first survey of her work in North America, Barba premieres The Color Out of Space (2015), a new film incorporating images of stars and planets collected over the last year at Hirsch Observatory at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The work expands upon Barba’s ongoing interrogation of geological time as measured against the span of a human lifetime. The exhibition includes works made over the last ten years including two of Barba’s cinematic large projections, which focus on natural landscapes and man-made interventions into the environment, as well as a group of small projector sculptures and wall works.

Rosa Barba (b. 1972, Sicily, Italy) lives and works in Berlin. Barba studied at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Solo exhibitions include Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland; Bergen Kunsthall, Norway; Jeu de Paume, Paris; and Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany among others. She was a resident artist at Artpace, San Antonio in 2014 and at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa in 2013.

Until January 3, 2016 at the List Visual Arts Center, MIT, Boston

 Rosa Barba: The Color Out of Space is curated by Henriette Huldisch, Curator, MIT List Visual Arts Center.

/\/\/\/\/\

The List Visual Arts Center, MIT’s contemporary art museum, collects, commissions, and presents rigorous, provocative, and artist-centric projects that engage MIT and the global art community.

Giorgio Morandi at the Center For Italian Modern Art

The Center for Italian Modern Art is excited to announce its third season, dedicated to Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), one of the best known Italian artists of the 20th century. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s rarely seen works from the 1930s—the decade when Morandi reached full artistic maturity and developed his distinctive pictorial language. These works until now have remained relatively little known or exhibited outside of Italy.

Featuring circa 40 paintings, etchings, and drawings by the acclaimed Italian modernist, the installation marks the first time in decades that many of these works have been on view in the US. CIMA’s show draws from major international public and private collections, including those of the MART Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto; the MAMBo, Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna; the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice; and the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland. The installation also presents select works from the very beginning of Giorgio Morandi’s career in the 1910s and from the very end of his life in the 1960s, to illustrate the thematic and pictorial continuities in the artist’s research. It also includes a selection of contemporary works inspired by Giorgio Morandi’s practice by artists Tacita Dean,Wolfgang Laib, Joel Meyerowitz, and Matthias Schaller.

 

GIORGIO MORANDI
ANNUAL INSTALLATION
09 OCTOBER 2015 – 25 JUNE 2016

\/\/\

The Center for Italian Modern Art (CIMA) is a 501c3 nonprofit exhibition and research center established in 2013 in New York City to promote public appreciation and advance the study of modern and contemporary Italian art in the United States and internationally.

Each academic year CIMA presents in its spacious loft in SoHo an installation examining the work of modern Italian artists rarely exhibited in the U.S. These installations bring the art of inspiring masters into dialogue with contemporary artists, illustrating its impact and ongoing resonance today. The exhibitions serve as the theme for CIMA’s fellowship program, which aims to promote new scholarship and dialogue in the field through the support of emerging young scholars from around the world.

CIMA is open for visits to its exhibition on Fridays and Saturdays at 11am, 1pm, 3pm, and 5pm, and holds special tours, events, conversations, and study days as part of its programming.

Frank Stella: A Retrospective

Frank Stella: A Retrospective is on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City until  February 7, 2016.

Frank Stella (b. 1936) is one of the most important living American artists. This retrospective is the most comprehensive presentation of Stella’s career to date, frank-stella-w-slideshowcasing his prolific output from the mid-1950s to the present through approximately 100 works, including paintings, reliefs, maquettes, sculptures, and drawings. Co-organized by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Whitney, this exhibition features Stella’s best-known works alongside rarely seen examples drawn from collections around the world. Accompanied by a scholarly publication, the exhibition fills the Whitney’s entire fifth floor, an 18,000-square-foot gallery that is the Museum’s largest space for temporary exhibitions.

Frank Stella: A Retrospective is organized by Michael Auping, chief curator, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, in association with Adam D. Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Director, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and with the assistance of Carrie Springer, assistant curator, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

“Vatican Splendors” at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia

The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia is hosting the exhibit Vatican Splendor, until February 15, 2016 The exhibition, opened during the historic Papal Visit (September 26-27) and the 2015 World Meeting of Families Congress in Philadelphia (September 22-25).  The exhibition  explores the historical and cultural impact of the Vatican over the span of 2,000 years through significantly relevant objects straight from the Vatican in Rome, Italy.  Every object in the exhibition tells its own story, together forming a great historical mosaic of the Vatican—and many of the artifacts have never before been on public view at the Vatican in Rome.

Highlights of the nearly 10,000 square-foot exhibition include documents signed by Michelangelo, tools used in work on the Sistine Chapel and Basilica of Saint Peter’s, works by masters including Bernini and Guercino, artwork dating back to the first century, venerated remains (bone fragments) of Saints Peter and Paul, relics discovered at the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, and historical objects from the modern and ancient basilicas of Saint Peter’s in Rome.

VaticanSplendors_MadonnaOfTheChairThe exhibition is organized into 11 galleries that illustrate the evolution of the Church, with thematic areas highlighting important developments, people and events tied to the history of the Vatican, reflected in both important historical objects and artistic expression from different eras. The objects are presented in galleries and recreated environments designed to enhance the understanding of their historical and artistic significance. Visitors will feel transported to the Vatican, from the underground catacombs where the remains of Saint Peter were discovered to the magnificent papal chambers found above ground. From the sights and sounds of the grand Basilica to a touchable cast of Saint John Paul II’s hand, the exhibition is a multi-sensory experience.
“There could not be a more fitting exhibition to bring to Philadelphia this fall than Vatican Splendors,” explains Larry Dubinski, President and CEO of The Franklin Institute. “Hosting an exhibit of this caliber during such a momentous time for Philadelphia and the world is truly remarkable and for anyone participating in the World Meeting of Families or the Papal Visit and mass, Vatican Splendors will unquestionably add an unforgettable layer to that once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

The Franklin Institute is the only East Coast stop for the exhibition, the first of a two-city North American tour, after

Two Angels

Two Angels

which the items will return to the Vatican, from which they cannot be absent for more than a year. The collection of priceless artifacts will be housed in the climate-controlled exhibit gallery in the Nicholas and Athena Karabots Pavilion at The Franklin Institute.

Vatican Splendors is organized and circulated in conjunction with the Congregazione per l’Evangelizzazione dei Popoli of the Vatican City State. Items in the collection—which include mosaics, frescoes, paintings by Renaissance masters, works by well-known sculptors, intricately embroidered silk vestments, precious
objects from the Papal Mass, uniforms of the Papal Swiss Guard, historical maps and documents and relics are on loan from The Reverenda Fabbrica of Saint Peter, the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls, the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, the Vatican Library, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the Apostolic Floreria, the Papal Swiss Guard, the Vatican Museums, and private collections.

Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World at the National Gallery of Art

An unprecedented exhibition of some 50 rare bronze sculptures and related works from the Hellenistic period is on view in Washington, D.C. at the National Gallery of Art from December 13, 2015, through March 20, 2016.  Previously at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World showcases bronze sculptures that are remarkably lifelike, often enhanced by copper eyelashes and lips and colored glass or stone eyes. Of the many thousands of bronze statues created in the Hellenistic period, only a small fraction is preserved. This exhibition is the first to gather together so many of the finest surviving bronzes from museums in Europe, North Africa, and the United States.

Athena-and-Medusa

Medallion with Athena and Medusa, 200 – 150 BC

“We are delighted to present visitors with this rare opportunity to see these dazzling works up close,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art, Washington. “We are grateful to the lenders—museums in Austria, Denmark, France, Georgia, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Spain, Tunisia, the United States, and the Vatican—as well as Bank of America for their generous support.”

“Circa un terzo delle opere, diciotto per l’esattezza, per questa magnifica mostra provengono da musei italiani, e’ una testimonianza dell’altissimo livello di cooperazione che continua a consolidarsi anno dopo anno tra la ‘National Gallery of art’ e le principali istituzioni culturali italiane”, ha osservato l’ambasciatore d’Italia a Washington, Claudio Bisogniero.  “Sono molto lieto in particolare che anche grazie al sostegno della nostra Ambasciata, opere come il Corridore ed il Fauno Danzante dal Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, siano per la prima volta visibili al pubblico americano”.

During the Hellenistic period—generally from the late fourth century BC to the first century AD—the art and culture of Greece spread throughout the Mediterranean and lands once conquered by Alexander the Great. Through the medium of bronze, artists were able to capture the dynamic realism, expression, and detail that characterize the new artistic goals of the era.

Power and Pathos brings together the most significant examples of Hellenistic bronze sculpture to highlight their varying styles, techniques, contexts, functions, and histories. The conquests of Alexander the Great (ruled 336–323 BC) created one of the largest empires in history and ushered in the Hellenistic period, which ended with the rise of the Roman Empire. For some 300 years after Alexander’s death, the medium of bronze drove artistic experimentation and innovation. Bronze—surpassing marble with its tensile strength, reflective surface, and ability to hold the finest detail—was used for dynamic poses, dazzling displays of the nude body, and vivid expressions of age and character.

“Realistic portraiture as we know it today, with an emphasis on individuality and expression, originated in the Hellenistic period,” said exhibition curator Kenneth Lapatin.  Jens M. Daehner, co-curator, added, “Along with images of gods, heroes, and athletes, sculptors introduced new subjects and portrayed people at all stages of life, from infancy to old age.” Both Daehner and Lapatin are associate curators in the department of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

A widespread ancient phenomenon, Hellenistic art is found not only throughout the Mediterranean, but also in regions far away, such as Thrace in the Balkans, ancient Colchis (in the Republic of Georgia), and the southern Arabian Peninsula. Through several thematic sections, the exhibition emphasizes the unique role of bronze both as a medium of prestige and artistic innovation and as a material exceptionally suited for reproduction.

“The works from the Power and Pathos exhibition represent a turning point in artistic innovation during one of the most culturally vibrant periods in world history,” said Rena De Sisto, global arts and culture executive, Bank of America. “We’re thrilled to be the National Tour Sponsor and to help bring this important collection to D.C. in hopes to inspire curiosity and wonder.”