2013 Frist Center Exhibition Schedule Features Dutch Golden Age Masterworks, Art Deco Automobiles, Art of the Ancient Americas, Paintings and Illustrations of Norman Rockwell, and Jack Spencer Photographs

Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery Features Camille Utterback, Vik Muniz and Ana Maria Tavares

NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Frist Center for the Visual Arts' 2013 exhibition schedule offers a wide variety of exhibitions in the Center's Ingram Gallery. These include master paintings of the Dutch Golden Age from the Detroit Institute of Arts, as well as a Frist Center-organized exhibition of exquisite Art Deco automobiles from some of the most renowned car collections in the United States.

The Upper-Level Galleries will feature Exploring Art of the Ancient Americas: The John Bourne Collection from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; an exhibition of Nashville-resident Jack Spencer's photographs organized by the Frist Center; and American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell from The Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, Mass.

In the Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery, the Frist will present the interactive installations of American artist Camille Utterback; the photographs of Vik Muniz who uses discarded materials to restage scenes from famous works of art; and the utopian architectural sculptures and videos of Brazilian artist Ana Maria Tavares.

The Frist Center's schedule of exhibitions for 2013 in order of opening:[*]

Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age: Highlights from the Detroit Institute of Arts
February 1–May 19, 2013
Ingram Gallery

Drawn from the Detroit Institute of Arts' superb collection of Dutch art—considered one of the finest and deepest collections outside the Netherlands—this exhibition presents more than 70 paintings by great Dutch masters including Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Jakob van Ruisdael, Pieter de Hooch and Jan Steen, as well as a small selection of related decorative art objects.  The exhibition will illuminate the larger social, religious and political environment of the Dutch Golden Age.

This exhibition was organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Camille Utterback
February 1–May 19, 2013
Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery

MacArthur Foundation Fellow Camille Utterback is an internationally acclaimed artist whose interactive installations and reactive sculptures engage participants in a dynamic process of kinesthetic discovery and play.  Her work explores the aesthetic and experiential possibilities of linking computational systems to human movement and gesture in layered and often humorous ways.  This exhibition will present several of Camille Utterback's highly original interactive digital installations including Text Rain, in which letters seem to drop slowly and come to rest on the projected image of the gallery visitor, forming words and nonsense syllables into human shape.  

This exhibition is organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and co-curated by Frist Center Chief Curator Mark Scala and Curator Trinita Kennedy.

Exploring Art of the Ancient Americas: The John Bourne Collection
March 1–June 23, 2013
Upper-Level Galleries

Assembled from the John Bourne collection of art of the ancient Americas at the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, this exhibition features 125 artworks from Mexico to Peru.  Organized thematically by culture, the artworks present more than 2,500 years of creativity in Mesoamerica, Central America and Andean South America from 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1520.  The exhibition features artworks as illustrations of the societies' fundamental principles such as the shamanic foundation of rulership in Mesoamerica, Costa Rica and Panama, and the cosmic principles embodied by gold and silver in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.  Other artworks, from elaborate musical instruments to portrayals of dancers, explore the importance of performance in politics and religion throughout the ancient Americas.

This exhibition was organized by the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Sensuous Steel: The Art Deco Automobile
June 14–September 15, 2013
Ingram Gallery

Inspired by the Frist Center's historic Art Deco building, Sensuous Steel: The Art Deco Automobile will feature spectacular automobiles and motorcycles that exemplify the classic elegance, luxurious materials and iconography of motion characterizing vehicles influenced by the Art Deco style.

Fascination with automobiles transcends age, gender and environment.  While today automotive manufacturers often strive for economy and efficiency, there was a time when elegance reigned.  Influenced by the Art Deco movement that began in Paris in the early 1920s and propelled to prominence in 1927 with the success of the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, automakers embraced the sleek new streamlined forms and aircraft-inspired materials, creating memorable automobiles that still thrill all who see them. The exhibition will feature 18 automobiles and three motorcycles from some of the most important collectors and collections in the United States.

Sensuous Steel is organized for the Frist Center by guest curator Ken Gross, a noted authority on automobiles who is the former director of the Petersen Automotive Museum.  A catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

Vik Muniz: Garbage Matters 
June 14, 2013–September 15, 2013
Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery

Vik Muniz is celebrated for his photographs of everyday materials, which have been arranged to reveal provocative and delightfully unexpected images when viewed from a distance. These transformative still lifes often relate to social concerns, as seen in the selections from the series Pictures of Junk and Pictures of Garbage on view in this exhibition. Merging high and low cultures, Muniz used castoff materials to recreate such masterpieces as Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and Jacques Louis David's The Death of Marat.

By exploring the relationship between the supposedly timeless beauty of Western art and the grim realities of poverty and waste, Muniz reminds us that great cultural attainments throughout history have often been achieved in environments—and often as a consequence—of repression and economic disparity.  This does not alter the greater truth of Muniz's vision: beauty, humanistic values, and spiritual aspiration can be found in the most abject of worlds.

This exhibition is organized by the Mint Museum in Charlotte, N.C.

Jack Spencer: Beyond the Surface
July 12–October 13, 2013
Upper-Level Galleries

A Nashville resident whose work has been exhibited and collected internationally, Jack Spencer alters the surfaces of his photographs with techniques suggestive of painting—rich tones and colors, softly-focused or veiled forms, slight imperfections and painterly textures.  Jack Spencer: Beyond the Surface is composed of approximately 70 photographs that exemplify the relationship between these compelling surfaces and Spencer's interest in myth, mystery and the ephemeral nature of existence. 

This exhibition is organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and curated by Frist Center Chief Curator Mark Scala.

A catalogue published by Vanderbilt University Press will accompany the exhibition.

30 Americans
October 4, 2013–January 12, 2014
Ingram Gallery

30 Americans showcases works by many of the most important African American artists of the last three decades. This provocative exhibition focuses on issues of racial, sexual, and historical identity in contemporary culture while exploring the powerful influence of artistic legacy and community across generations. Drawn from the extensive Rubell Family Collection in Miami, the exhibition comprises over 70 works—including paintings, sculpture, photographs, videos, collages and multimedia works—from leading artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Nick Cave, Wangechi Mutu and Robert Colescott.

30 Americans is organized by the Rubell Family Collection, Miami.

Ana Maria Tavares: Deviating Utopias
October 4, 2013–January 12, 2014
Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery

Ana Maria Tavares finds inspiration in the architecture of the modern city, particularly the stylistic grammar of Oscar Niemeyer and other utopian modernist Brazilian architects who have transformed urban Brazil in the post World War II years.  She employs materials such as steel, glass, and mirrors, often alluding to building interiors and product design, to make structures that occupy the border between design and fine art.  Airports and departure lounges—places that symbolize exit from everyday life—are a recurrent theme in her work, evoking feelings relating to floating and falling, meditating, and the co-existence of the real and virtual.

The centerpiece of this exhibition is her four-sided immersive video, Airshaft (to Piranesi), 2008, comprising sequences of elaborate interiors as seen from multiple perspectives in constant motion.

This exhibition is organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and curated by Frist Center Chief Curator Mark Scala.

American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell
November 1, 2013–February 9, 2014
Upper-Level Galleries

Norman Rockwell, one of America's most beloved and recognized artists, honed his visual storytelling abilities creating illustrations for some of the nation's most prominent publications, and is fondly remembered for his emotionally appealing, idealized scenes of early 20^th century American life.  Rockwell's images portray scenes of human triumph and frailty with affectionate humor, dignity and kindness, often emphasizing the importance of tolerance and America's democratic ideals.

Featuring over 40 paintings and a selection of drawings, tear-sheets, and other related works, including original Saturday Evening Post covers, American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell traces the evolution of Rockwell's art and iconography throughout his career—from carefully choreographed reflections on childhood innocence to consciousness-raising images documenting the traumatic realities of desegregation in the South.

This exhibition was organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts is supported in part by the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About the Frist Center
Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., is an art exhibition center dedicated to presenting the finest visual art from local, regional, U.S. and international sources in a program of changing exhibitions. The Frist Center's Martin ArtQuest Gallery, open until 5:30 p.m. each day, features interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and younger and to Frist Center members. With possible exception for some specially-ticketed exhibitions, Frist Center admission is $10.00 for adults and $7.00 for seniors, military and college students with ID.  College students are admitted free Thursday and Friday evenings, 5–9 p.m.  Discounts are offered for groups of 10 or more with advance reservation by calling (615) 744-3247. The Frist Center is open seven days a week: Mondays through Wednesdays, and Saturdays, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. and Sundays, 1–5:30 p.m., with the Frist Center Café opening at noon. Additional information is available by calling (615) 244-3340 or by visiting our website at www.fristcenter.org.

[*] Dates may be subject to change.

SOURCE Frist Center for the Visual Arts