By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum has announced a major exhibit for 2012: “Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism,” Jan. 21-April 15. The show of more than 100 representations of the “perfect circle,” as mandalas are called, will be drawn from the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York and other museums and private collections from around the world.

“Visitors will find mandalas conceived as concentric circles, circles within squares, squares within circles, lotus blossoms, six-pronged stars, or inverted, crossed triangles,” according to a Carlos release. “A deity, sometimes with a partner, is usually situated in the middle of the central disk, surrounded by four, six, eight, ten, twelve, or more assembly deities set in an additional circle. As such, the mandala’s very construct graphically mirrors the Buddhist notion of the cosmos and of the human being. In addition to paintings, reliquaries, and amulets, the …

Continue reading Carlos Museum, Emory Visual Arts Gallery to mount mandala shows in Jan. »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

The High Museum of Art has struck another new partnership, this time with the Louvre, the just-opened Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

But this partnership is different than the high-profile recent collaboration with the Louvre or the current one with New York’s Museum of Modern Art that have mainly brought art to Atlanta. The three museums and art foundation on Wednesday announced the launch of a four-year partnership to produce intimate, focused exhibits of American and European art from their combined collections to be mounted by the three museums, plus related programming.

The first exhibit, a six-painting show exploring the birth of American landscape painting titled “American Encounters: Thomas Cole and the Narrative Landscape,” comes to the High on September 22. Including two works from the High’s permanent collection, the exhibit premieres at the Louvre on Jan. 14. It will be …

Continue reading High Museum, three other institutions strike partnership to share art »

EVENT
History Center’s ‘Spirit’
In addition to daily noon-4 p.m. tours of its decorated-for-the-holidays Smith Family Farm and Swan House, the Atlanta History Center will offer special evening programs built around lantern-led tours of the historic properties on Thursday and Dec. 20.

“The Holiday Spirit” family programs, offered 5:30-9 both nights, will include live musical performances, storytelling, Smith Family Farm demonstrations and hands-on activities, candlelit trails and kid-friendly crafts.

At Smith Family Farm, guests will encounter living history characters who share stories of what life was like for residents during the holidays of 1861. At Swan House, guests encounter interpreters who share stories of life in 1930 Atlanta.

Before or after a guided tour (50 minutes each), guests may take part in ongoing holiday activities, visit any of the history center’s exhibitions, shop for holiday gifts at the museum shop or purchase food available from Flying Biscuit …

Continue reading Culture notes: Holiday tours at History Center; ex-Atlantan in NYC Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’; Earth in satellite views at Tellus »

VISUAL ART
Art-making in progress
Winner of the $50,000 Hudgens Prize announced last year, Atlanta artist Gyun Hur also won the opportunity for a solo show at the Hudgens Center for the Arts in Duluth. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Saturday, the public can view Hur creating the exhibit’s central installation from thousands of hand-shredded silk flowers carefully assembled on the gallery floor (admission: $5; $3 children, seniors and students; free under 2). “In a Landscape Anew’s” opening reception will be at 2 p.m. Dec. 17. 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Building 300, Duluth. 770-623-6002, www.thehudgens.org. HOWARD POUSNER

Totem rises in Cartersville
Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville is unveiling a major new work on its grounds in an 11:30 a.m. public ceremony Wednesday: a 2,300-pound, 37-foot tall totem pole. The Nishga totem pole, dating to 1970s British Columbia, is being loaned by Atlanta developer Tom Cousins and his wife Ann. An Art for Lunch lecture about …

Continue reading Culture notes: Prize-winner Hur’s installation-in-progress at Hudgens Center; a totem rises at Booth Western »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

Tapestry artist Jon Eric Riis has received a $50,000 fellowship grant from the United States Artists. The unrestricted grant is the first to an Atlanta resident by the artist advocacy organization since it launched the awards six years ago.

Informed by his research into the historical textiles of pre-Columbian Peru and Imperial China and Russian ecclesiastical vestments, works by Riis, 66, are included in the Museum of Design Atlanta exhibit “The Opulent Object in Wood, Metal and Fiber” (through Jan. 1).

As in the previous five years, United States Artists announced awards of 50 grants of $50,000 this afternoon. The winners will be honored at a celebration tonight at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, Calif.

With today’s announcement, United States Artists has put $15 million into the hands of 300 of what the non-profit termed “America’s most innovative artists — many of whom, despite their achievements, still struggle to make …

Continue reading Atlanta tapestry artist Jon Eric Riis receives $50,000 grant »

VISUAL ART
The South in focus
The High Museum of Art has announced that it has commissioned Martin Parr, Kael Alford and Shane Lavalette for its “Picturing the South” photography series. The High launched the series of photographs inspired by the American South in 1996. Seventy six new prints by Parr, Alford and Lavalette will be featured in a “Picturing the South” exhibition from June 9 to Sept. 2, alongside “Picturing New York” from New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

British photographer Parr focused on Atlanta’s urban setting. Alford captured communities in the marshlands of Louisiana facing rapid coastal erosion.Lavalette explored the relationship between traditional Southern music and the contemporary landscape.

A related exhibit, “Revisiting the South: Richard Misrach’s Cancer Alley” also will be on view at the High, June 2-Oct. 14. As part of the “Picturing” commission series the Los Angeles photographer focused in 1998 on the ecological decay of a …

Continue reading High Museum adds to ‘Picturing the South’ photography series; Spruill holiday family event Saturday »