Around Atlanta

Major Rodin Exhibition at the High Museum of Art This Fall

Published

8 months ago

July 15, 2022

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917), The Thinker, large version, modeled 1903, cast by Alexis Rudier 1928, bronze, Baltimore Museum of Art, The Jacob Epstein Collection, 1930.25.1.

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1917) is one of the most celebrated sculptors of the modern age, represented in museums and private collections across the globe. However, this was not always the case. From his first sculpture to enter an American museum in 1893 and culminating with his popular revival in the 1980s, “Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern” — on view at the High Museum of Art Oct. 21, 2022-Jan. 15, 2023 — follows Rodin’s rise to eminence in America due in large part to the collectors, critics and curators who helped make it happen. The exhibition will also reveal Rodin’s incredible daring and inventiveness as he continually pushed against and beyond traditional notions of sculpture.

“Though now holding pride of place in major American museum collections, and renowned for its distinctive aesthetic, it’s perhaps only in the last 40 years that Rodin’s work has become recognized as among the greatest achievements in Modern art,” said Rand Suffolk, Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr., Director of the High. “This exhibition takes the audience on a journey, as Rodin’s reputation builds, declines and rises again. It’s a fascinating story, illustrated by many of Rodin’s most striking and beautiful works.”

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917), *Katherine Seney Simpson (Mrs. John W. Simpson)*, 1902–1903, marble, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson, 1942.5.16.

The 45 sculptures and 25 works on paper in the exhibition encompass many of Rodin’s best-known compositions, including “The Thinker,” “Monument to Balzac” and “The Kiss,” as well as less-familiar subjects and an exceptional number of his expressive and probing drawings. The works show Rodin working across an array of media — from terracotta and plaster to bronze and marble — and illuminate his creative process, from studies and maquettes to completed works.

“All of us have stood awestruck in front of Rodin’s more-than-life-size figures, like the 9-foot ‘Monument to Balzac’ or the massive, 2,000-pound ‘Thinker’,” said Claudia Einecke, the High’s Frances B. Bunzl Family curator of European art. “But it is a testament to Rodin’s unsurpassed power of evocation that even diminutive figures, such as the 5-inch ‘Female Torso’ or a 6-inch portrait head of the actress Hanako, can impress us with the same physical energy and monumental presence. Visitors will be delighted to see the breadth of Rodin’s work in this exhibition and to learn how he came to be among the 20th century’s most revered artists.”

Rodin’s path to acceptance in the United States was a complicated, winding one, and the stories of the collectors and institutions that embraced his work reveal a desire to look beyond the conventional to confront, and embrace, the modern.

Rodin first gained significant attention in the United States in 1893, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art made the first acquisition of his artwork by an American institution. That same year, he made his controversial debut at Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition with three marble sculptures, which were quickly judged too provocative and moved to a private space that was only accessible by request. As the exposition progressed, however, the censorship propelled public interest in his work.

This notoriety sparked an early-20th-century collecting frenzy, promoted by noted philanthropist Katherine Seney Simpson, avant-garde performer Loïe Fuller, and collector Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, among others. The exhibition details the intriguing confluence of these Rodin enthusiasts and the roles they played in generating interest in his art.

In the 1920s and 1930s, many American museums made important acquisitions of Rodin’s work, further fueling avid interest in the artist. However, these institutions tended to display his more finished, narrative subjects. The majority of his seemingly unfinished, fragmented or more “erotic” works — appreciated today for their daring and modernity — were consigned to storage, where they languished for years. By the Second World War, enthusiasm for his work had waned and critical sentiment regarding his art shifted, leading museums to relegate his sculptures to less prominent places or remove them from the public eye.

In 1954, Museum of Modern Art Director Alfred H. Barr Jr. requested a bronze cast of Rodin’s “Monument to Balzac” for the museum’s collection, which spurred scholars and critics to reappraise Rodin’s works. Nearly 30 years later, the National Portrait Gallery’s 1981 exhibition “Rodin Rediscovered” ushered in a resurgence of appreciation for Rodin’s art in the United States, which continues today.

“Confronting the Modern” traces these ebbs and flows of Rodin’s American popularity and includes loans of key works from more than 30 museums and private collections across the country. These works include:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Bust of St. John the Baptist” (bronze, original model 1880, cast 1883), the first Rodin work to enter an American museum collection.
The marble bust “Katherine Seney Simpson” (1903), which immortalized Rodin’s early advocate, who was instrumental in developing the Met’s Rodin collection and donated her private collection of his art to the National Gallery of Art upon her death.
Bronze sculptures “The Thinker” (cast 1928) and “The Kiss” (cast 1888) from the Baltimore Museum of Art’s collection. “Rodin in the United States” marks the first time that the Baltimore Museum of Art has loaned “The Thinker” to an exhibition.
The Museum of Modern Art’s “Monument to Balzac” (cast 1954), which instigated renewed interest in Rodin’s work.
Drawings related to some of Rodin’s most famous compositions, such as “The Thinker” and “Ugolino and His Sons.”
A group of diminutive plaster studies exploring the expressive power of the human hand, which were gifts from the artist to the Met’s Rodin Gallery, established in 1912.

“Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated, 260-page catalogue edited by exhibition curator Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, with contributions by Christina Buley-Uribe, Patrick R. Crowley, C. D. Dickerson III, Laure de Margerie, Véronique Mattiussi, Elyse Nelson, Jennifer A. Thompson and Nora M. Rosengarten. The book is published by the Clark Art Institute and distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven.

The exhibition will be presented in the Cousins Family Special Exhibition Galleries on the Second Level of the High’s Wieland Pavilion.

Exhibition Organization and Support
“Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern” is organized by the Clark Art Institute, Williamston, Massachusetts, and guest curated by independent scholar Antoinette Le Normand-Romain.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Funding for this exhibition is provided by Troutman Pepper.

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Around Atlanta

Rainbow Village adds three new members to its board

Published

1 month ago

February 10, 2023

Courtesy of Elliott Brack's Gwinnett Forum

Three new members of the board of directors of Rainbow Village have been announced. They are Deon Tucker of Decatur, Susie Collat of Peachtree Corners, and Deborah Latham of Atlanta.

Melanie Conner, CEO for Rainbow Village, says: “Not only are they wildly successful powerhouses in their own right, but each of these women has a long history of giving back to the community.”

Deon Tucker is Georgia Power Company’s Metro North Regional Director, and leads the company’s external affairs activities for DeKalb, North Fulton, Gwinnett and Rockdale counties. She has earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University and a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership from Troy University. She serves on the board of directors for the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, Council for Quality Growth, Georgia Gwinnett College Foundation and Gwinnett Technical College.

Susie Collat is a former owner of two businesses, Mayer Electric Supply Company, Inc. and Peachtree Awnings. She serves on the advisory board of the Special Needs Schools of Gwinnett, where she was president for five years. She has also served as a board member of the Dare to Hope Foundation where she was actively involved in its fundraising activities, and as a member of her local school council. In 2004, she was recognized with the Women of Achievement Award from Atlanta’s oldest and most diverse synagogue, The Temple. This Peachtree Corners’ resident is a graduate of Tulane University with a degree in Communication and Business.

Deborah Latham, retired, founded Georgia Tank Lines in 1996. As CEO, she helped fuel the expansion of her trucking company that transported gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and ethanol. Deborah continues as a role model for other female entrepreneurs, having shattered the glass ceiling in the male-dominated petroleum industry. She has served on the boards of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Visions Anew and Good Mews. She is a graduate of the University of Tennessee.

This material is presented with permission from Elliott Brack’s GwinnettForum, an online site published Tuesdays and Fridays. To become better informed about Gwinnett, subscribe (at no cost) at GwinnettForum

Around Atlanta

High Museum to Present Ancient Nubian Art

Published

2 months ago

January 29, 2023

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta will present “Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston” from June 2 to September 3.

The exhibition will be presented on the Second Level of the High’s Anne Cox Chambers Wing and feature more than 200 masterworks drawn from MFA Boston’s vast holdings, now the largest and most comprehensive collection of ancient Nubian art and material culture outside of Africa.

For more than 3,000 years, a series of kingdoms flourished along the Nile Valley south of ancient Egypt in the Nubian Desert of modern-day Sudan. The works in the exhibition highlight the skill, artistry, and innovation of Nubian makers and reflect the wealth and power of their kings and queens, who once controlled one of the ancient world’s largest empires.

Inscribed steatite ball, Nubian, Sudan, 743-712 BCE, steatite, 1 x 1 ¼ inches, Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, 21.313 Photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Eye of Horus (wedjat) pectoral, Nubian, Sudan, 743-712 BCE, faience, 3 x 1/16 x 3 ⅜ x ¼ inches, Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, 24.679. Photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Winged goddess pectoral, Nubian, Napatan Period, reign of Piankhy (Piye) 743-712 BCE, faience, 3 9/16 x 2 ⅜ x 9/16 inches, Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, 24.639. Photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Statue of King Senkamanisken, Nubian, Sudan, 643-623 BCE, granite gneiss, 58 3/16 x 19 ¾ inches, Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, 23.731. Photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Pectoral with Pataikos as a cippus, Nubian, Sudan, 690-623 BCE, faience, 4 ⅛ x 2 ½ inches, Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, 24.781. Photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Ancient Nubia: Art of the 25th Dynasty” from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“Not only are the objects in this exhibition beautiful examples of artistic achievement, but they also underscore the incredible power and influence of kingdoms that were for many years misunderstood and underappreciated in their historical significance,” said Randall Suffolk, Nancy, and Holcombe T. Green, Jr., director of the High. “We are grateful for the opportunity to help tell this story and to share works with our audience from regions of Africa not extensively represented in our own collection.”

The exhibition will focus exclusively on a later period of ancient Nubian history, the Napata Empire (750-332 BCE), during which Nubia took its place as a world superpower.

It will include rare artifacts from Napata temples and royal cemeteries, including skillfully crafted pottery, gold and silver amulets, jewelry of royal women, dozens of funerary figurines, and statues of kings.

More than a dozen plaques featuring cartouches of Egyptian hieroglyphics will also be on view. Together, the objects illustrate Napata’s spiritual significance and its military and artistic distinction as the center of power during an important period of Nubian history.

“This exhibition aims to be corrective,” said Lauren Tate Baeza, the High’s Fred and Rita Richman curator of African art. “Responding to previous generations of historians and archaeologists who presented racial biases as fact, it seeks to counter colonial-era misattributions of ancient Sudanese artistic and scientific prowess to their neighbors and the lasting relative erasure of early Sudanese civilizations from the canon of ancient history.”

Around Atlanta

Guide to Atlanta Holiday Fun

Published

3 months ago

December 9, 2022

Kathy Dean

There are lots of holiday events and shows happening in and around Peachtree Corners this year. If you’re looking for even more seasonal celebrations, here is a sampling of some festive things to do around Atlanta.

Family Fun

The Roof at Ponce City Market has become a winter wonderland. Now through January 8, visitors can purchase tickets to get on the 3,500-square-foot ice rink and Skate the Sky.

Private, heated Sky Igloos are located alongside the skating rink and at 9 Mile Station. They can be reserved for all-age and 21+ parties of one to six. For skating and igloo details and reservations, click on poncecityroof.com.

The Yard at Ponce City Market is the place to go on Saturday, Dec. 17. Santa will be there ready to pose with guests during Selfie Saturdays with Santa, 12-4 p.m. If the weather is frightful, Santa will be on the second floor of Central Food Hall. Find out more at poncecitymarket.com.

Atlanta’s largest ice rink is at Atlantic Station. Skate the Station is open now through Jan. 16. It’s ready for action, weather permitting, on weekdays, 4-10 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; and Sundays, 12-8 p.m.

The free Celebration at the Station is a light and snow show happening now through Jan. 3, every hour from 5 to 9 p.m. Go to the Events page at atlanticstation.com to find more.

Skaters can also glide along at Avalon on Ice on the Plaza in Avalon, now through Jan. 16. General admission is $18 for adults and $14 for children aged 9 and under. Tickets and more info are on the website, experienceavalon.com.

Reservations are open for select days now through Dec. 24 for Tea with Santa at The St. Regis Atlanta. The afternoon treat includes sweets and a visit with Santa, Mrs. Claus and a mischievous elf.

Polar Express at the Best Address is a Christmas Day brunch with live music, entertainment, delectable food and an open bar. Prepaid reservations are available for parties of 1 to 15.Visit exploretock.com/stregisatl for info and to make reservations for both events.

Lights and Decorations

The much-loved Garden Lights, Holiday Nights brings back favorite features and adds a few new twists at Atlanta Botanical Garden, now through Jan. 14. Most dates sell out quickly, so visit the website for tickets soon.

Holiday songs will fill the air with Carols in the Garden when the Tinseltones visit on Dec. 10 and 17, 10:45 and 11:45 a.m. Keep up with all the events at atlantabg.org.

The historic home of author Joel Chandler Harris in Atlanta’s West End will host special Home for the Holidays tours on Dec. 17, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Wren’s Nest’s iconic front porch and interior rooms will be festooned with period-inspired decorations. Tickets run $14 to $18 and can be purchased through wrensnest.org.

Winter Wonderland: Celebrations & Traditions Around the World is back at Fernbank for its 13^th year as a special exhibit, now through Jan. 6. It spans two floors of the museum and showcases different decorated trees and displays that recognize various celebrations, events and cultural traditions from around the world. Learn more at FernbankMuseum.org.

This year, World of Illumination brings Reindeer Road, a larger-than-life holiday light event, to the parking area of Six Flags White Water in Marietta. The spectacular drive-through light show runs now through Jan. 1, nightly from 6 to 10 p.m. Pricing starts at $39.99 per vehicle. For details and tickets, visit worldofillumination.com.

Menorah Lightings

On the first night of Hanukkah, Dec. 18, Avalon and Chabad of North Fulton will hold the Menorah Lighting at Avalon on Boulevard East, 5-6 p.m. Guests will also enjoy some special goodies. Visit experienceavalon.com for details.

Chabad Intown has scheduled free events featuring Menorah Lightings at North Highland Park in Virginia Highland on Dec. 18 at 4 p.m. and Atlantic Station on Dec. 20 at 6 p.m. There’s another at Decatur Square on Dec. 22 at 6 p.m. Find more events at atlantajewishconnector.com/organization/chabad-intown-atlanta.

Ponce City Market joins with Chabad Intown to present a traditional Menorah Lighting ceremony to celebrate the Festival of Lights on Dec. 21 at 6 p.m. at The Yard. There will be music, live entertainment and refreshments. Get details at poncecitymarket.com.

Everyone is invited to celebrate Hanukkah at Light Up the JCC on Dec. 20, 5-5:30 p.m., in the courtyard at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta in Dunwoody. There’ll be a menorah lighting, Hanukkah songs, performances and free hot chocolate and doughnuts. Go to atlantajcc.org for more info.

Seasonal Shows

A Christmas Carol will be staged by the Alliance Theatre for the 34^th time. The Alliance production features new costumes, live music and puppetry. The play runs through Dec. 24 on the theatre’s Coca-Cola Stage. Tickets, show times, cast list and more is available at alliancetheatre.org/christmas.

Two Nutcracker shows will grace the stage at Fox Theatre this December. Hip Hop Nutcracker, Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m., is a contemporary dance spectacle set to Tchaikovsky’s music. Tickets start at $49. The more traditional Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet features puppets, acrobatics and stars of the Ukraine ballet. There’ll be two showings on Dec. 23, 3 and 7 p.m.; tickets start at $34. Visit foxtheatre.org for tickets and details.

The cast at Dad’s Garage has rehearsed the traditional Scrooge play, but Invasion: Christmas Carol brings a surprise guest to disrupt everything. Past invaders include Young Frankenstein and The Harlem Globetrotters. The show runs Dec. 2-30. Go to dadsgarage.com/ixc for info and tickets.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, based on the classic holiday TV show, is recreated at the Center for Puppetry Arts now through Dec. 31. Tickets include the show, admission to the Worlds of Puppetry Museum and a Create-a-Puppet workshop. Go to puppet.org to find out more.

The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse transports its audience to Scrooge’s London counting house for Dicken’s classic A Christmas Carol, presented Dec. 3-23. Food and drink are available 75 minutes before every show. For info on special performances and to get tickets, click on shakespearetavern.com.

See something different this season at State Farm Arena. Holiday Hoopsgiving, Dec. 10-18, is a Thanksgiving basketball showcase that features five college neutral-court games, and Cirque Musica: Holiday Wonderland, a show with acrobats, aerialists and hijinks, will be at the arena on Dec. 13 at 7 p.m.

The WWE Holiday Tour Supershow, Dec. 27 at 7:30 p.m., features fan-favorite smackdown superstars. Show info and tickets are at statefarmarena.com.

Holiday Concerts and Music

On Dec. 18, Christmas on Clairemont: Keyboards and Choir will be presented at First Baptist Church Decatur at 6 p.m. It features four grand pianos and organ, a festival chorus of 100 local singers and special guest soloists and conductors. The concert is free to attend with an opportunity to support Ukraine. Find details at christmasonclairemont.com.

Spend Christmas with the ASO for a musical evening filled with holiday carols, hymns and more. It’ll be presented Dec. 15, 16 and 18. On Dec. 17 at 8 p.m., the voices of Celtic Woman: A Christmas Symphony will ring through Symphony Hall with arrangements from the Irish all-female group’s holiday album “The Magic of Christmas.”

The ASO and Chamber Chorus perform Handel’s Messiah (Part I) on Dec. 22, 8 p.m. at Atlanta Symphony Hall. If you prefer to watch it at home, an ASO performance of Handel’s Messiah will be aired on Georgia Public Broadcasting on Dec. 18 at 6:30 p.m. Get info on these and more concerts at aso.org.

On Dec. 18 at 4 p.m., A Christmas Festival of Lessons and Carols will be presented at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. The choral service is the church’s most popular. Admission is free. Find out more at cathedralatl.org/worship/music/concerts.

Holiday concerts at State Farm Arena include IHeartRadio Power 96.1’s Jingle Ball 2022, a star-studded musical event on Dec. 15 at 7:30 p.m., and the V-103 Winterfest 2022 on Dec. 16, 8 p.m., with Grammy-award winner Maxwell as headliner. Get details and tickets at statefarmarena.com.

New Year’s Celebrations

The annual Noon Year’s Eve Celebration on the Roof will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Dec. 31 at Ponce City Market. Skyline Park will host an all-ages celebration centered around a countdown to noon. All-access tickets of $25 include admission and gameplay; ages 3 and under are free. Go to poncecitymarket.com to pre-order tickets and learn more.

Another family-friendly celebration will be held at Avalon on Dec. 31, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., to ring in the new year at Noon Year’s Eve. The daytime event includes a DJ, face painting, complimentary snacks and plenty of photo ops. Admission is $15 each for kids and adults, ages 2 and under are free. Find all the info at experienceavalon.com.

Ring in 2023 at the New Year’s Eve Swingin’ Party at the Byer’s Theatre in the City of Sandy Springs on Dec. 31, starting at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $40 to enjoy the music of Georgia Music Hall of Famer Francine Reed and Sandy Springs native Joe Gransden and his 16-piece band.

The Swing in the New Afterparty moves to the Studio Theatre for dancing, light bites, desserts and a toast at midnight. Afterparty tickets are $55 and sold separately from the concert. Purchase tickets through sandyspringsga.gov/events.

On Dec. 31, Georgia Aquarium will host an adults-only New Year’s Celebration, starting at 8:30 p.m. Attendees enjoy after-hours access to the main galleries, cocktails and food, live entertainment and a midnight champagne toast. General admission tickets are $125; VIP tickets are $195. All proceeds benefit the aquarium’s research and conservation efforts.

After a three-year hiatus, the annual Peach Drop returns to Underground Atlanta on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31. The festivities are free to the public typically draw crowds of 65,000 to 100,000. Watch the website undergroundatl.com to keep informed.