THE ANNEX

The Summer Arts Scavenger Hunt is a fun summer activity and a chance to win an iPod Touch! All members of the U-M community are invited to play — faculty, students, staff, and friends!

Below are the first three questions. Subscribe to Arts at Michigan’s weekly newsletter to receive each week’s question (along with other interesting arts information) in your inbox!

May 2: What folk legend is being honored at tonight’s show at The Ark? What birthday is he celebrating? What is the name of the progressive movement song written by this singer, which later became a Top 10 hit for Peter, Paul and Mary in 1962?

May 9: What American film director’s work is on display at Hatcher Graduate Library? What is his highest-grossing film to date? In what year was his body of work recognized with an Honorary Academy Award? 

May 16: What folk singer is playing at The Ark tonight? What was the name of her “folk opera”? What singer-songwriter noticed this singer in 2003, and signed her to Righteous Babe Records?

Keep track of your answers through the summer, and send all of your answers at one time to arts@umich.edu before midnight on Sunday September 8th!

Emilio Sanchez
Cuba and United States, 1921-1999
La Fortaleza
1970-75
Oil on canvas
Gift of the Emilio Sanchez Foundation, 2011/2.63

Recently UMMA and several academic museums in the US benefitted from the generosity of the Emilio Sanchez Foundation when it donated much of Sanchez’s life work. The gift to UMMA of eighty paintings and lithographs, along with other recent acquisitions from Cuba such as two folk paintings given by Dr. James L. Curtis, expand the collection in the direction of the Caribbean, an exciting growth area for the Museum.

You can see this new acquisition on view in the first-floor connector between the Museum’s historic wing and the Maxine and Stuart Frankel and the Frankel Family Wing until July 8, 2013.

Click here to read more.

Did you know that the University of Michigan has a wealth of public art waiting for you to explore? The collection includes both permanently installed and temporary artworks on every campus that span a wide range of media. Visit the Public Art website to browse through the collection for each campus, and go visit the artworks yourself.

You can plan a tour by browsing around on the Google map for each campus and finding out what interests you. Then print the maps, and start exploring!

HAVE FUN!

And don’t forget to visit the outdoor sculptures at UMMA!

Image: STIFF BOX NO. 12, Lucas Samaras, 1997; Cor-Ten Steel; Sculpture, Central Campus; In east court between Alumni Memorial Hall and the Frankel Family Wing of the Museum of Art

Jasper Johns, Jr. (born May 15, 1930) is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking.

In the late 1950’s, Jasper Johns emerged as force in the American art scene. His richly worked paintings of maps, flags, and targets led the artistic community away from Abstract Expressionism toward a new emphasis on the concrete. Johns laid the groundwork for both Pop Art and Minimalism. Today, he remains at the forefront of American art, with work represented in nearly every major museum collection.

Barack Obama, had this to say as he awarded Jasper Johns the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom:

“It has been noted that Jasper Johns‘ work, playing off familiar images, have transfixed people around the world. Historians will tell you that he helped usher in the artistic movements that would define the latter half of the 20th century. Many would say he is one of the greatest artists of our time. And yet, of his own efforts he has simply said, “I’m just trying to find a way to make pictures.” Just trying to find a way to make pictures.

Like great artists before him, Jasper Johns pushed the boundaries of what art could be and challenged others to test their own assumptions. He didn’t do it for fame, he didn’t do it for success—although he earned both. As he said, “I assumed that everything would lead to complete failure, but I decided that it didn’t matter—that would be my life.” We are richer as a society because it was. And Jasper, you’ve turned out fine.”

Click here to see the seven works by Jasper Johns in UMMA’s collection.

Georges Braque (May 13, 1882 – August 31, 1963) was a major 20th-century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism. 

“The things that Picasso and I said to one another during those years will never be said again, and even if they were, no one would understand them anymore. It was like being roped together on a mountain.” — Georges Braque

Image: Reclining Nude, Georges Braque, etching from 1882-1948, University of Michigan Museum of Art purchase, 1971/2.151

Eight favorite quotes from the one and only Salvador Dalí (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989):

• “At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.” 
• “Have no fear of perfection - you’ll never reach it.” 
• “So little of what could happen does happen.” 
• “Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.” 
• “Since I don’t smoke, I decided to grow a mustache - it is better for the health. However, I always carried a jewel-studded cigarette case in which, instead of tobacco, were carefully placed several mustaches, Adolphe Menjou style. I offered them politely to my friends: “Mustache? Mustache? Mustache?” Nobody dared to touch them. This was my test regarding the sacred aspect of mustaches.”
• “The only difference between me and a madman is I’m not mad.” 
• “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” 
• “Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dali.” 

Image: Dali Atomicus, 1948 portrait of Dalí by American Photographer Philippe Halsman, from the collection at UMMA.

(check out a hilarious Lego recreation of this photograph HERE)

Diary of a Crazy Artist: Good Quotes about Cats

courtesy of SFMOMA

The UncommonGoods iPhone Design Challenge is a chance for talented artists to display their best 2D digital captures including original watercolors, acrylics, pastels, colored pencils, collages, photography, digital art, etc. The winner will have their art printed on an iPhone case that will be sold at UncommonGoods.  Along with an UncommonGoods vendor contract, the winner will also receive $500 and national exposure. DEADLINE: May 31, 2013 at 11:59 PM ET Click here for more info!

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (May 6, 1880 – June 15, 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or “The Bridge”, a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century art. 

In 1933, Kirchner was labelled a “degenerate artist” by the Nazis and over 600 of his works were confiscated from public museums in Germany and either sold or destroyed.

“I begin with movement… …I believe that all human visual experiences are born from movement…” – Ernst Ludwig Kirchner