From the Vaults: John Ringling's Asian and Cypriot Art

November 19, 2011 - October 21, 2012

John Ringling was certainly not known as a collector of Asian art during his lifetime, nor does his popular legacy reflect this impression.  Yet his appreciation for the spectacular, his discerning eye, and the guidance of his friends and fellow collectors all converged to create his relatively small but fascinating collection that can be counted among the treasures of his museum.

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PETER PAUL RUBENS: Impressions of a Master

February 17, 2012 - June 3, 2012

Peter Paul Rubens: Impressions of a Master showcases the work of one of the greatest and most influential artists of all time: the Flemish Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640).  The exhibition features more than 75 magnificent engravings of the highest artistic standards after compositions by Rubens; these are drawn from the extraordinary collection of the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp), the repository of the largest group of prints after the artist in the world, and from the holdings of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. The prints will be displayed alongside several important paintings by Rubens from the Ringling collection, perhaps the premier collection of works by the artist in America.

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SANFORD BIGGERS: Codex

March 30, 2012 - October 14, 2012

Codex presents the latest work by internationally renowned installation artist, Sanford Biggers.  Using a complex system of imagery including star maps, dance notations, the Buddhist lotus composed of a slave ship diagram, and cloud forms made out of raw cotton, Biggers explores the Afrofuturist notion of “Harriet Tubman as astronaut” as she led slaves to their freedom guided by the stars.

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DECO JAPAN: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920-1945

July 13, 2012 - October 28, 2012

Selected by Dr Kendall Brown, the nearly 200 works shown here highlight the Levenson collection -- the world's premier collection of Japanese art in the Deco style.  These pieces include spectacular examples of metalwork, ceramics, lacquer, glass, wood furniture, jewelry, textiles, graphic design on paper, painting and woodblock prints; they range from fine art objects made to impress the public at national art exhibitions to goods mass produced for the modern home.  The exhibition combines a dynamic range of compelling objects with fresh scholarly perspective to pull viewers into this rich period in world history and visual culture.

The Warren J. and Margot Coville Photography Collection

November 9, 2012 - February 3, 2013

Celebrating the gift of over 700 photographs to the collection, this exhibition will feature a representative sampling of images spanning the 20th and 21st centuries. The Warren J. and Margot Coville collection includes work by renowned photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, André Kertész, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Berenice Abbott, and Robert Capa.  The collection comprises a number of works that might be deemed photojournalistic and is, therefore, a potent mirror of social change over the century.

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Paolo Veronese

December 7, 2012 - April 14, 2013

Paolo Veronese is acknowledged as one of the giants of Venetian Renaissance painting. His artistic production was richly varied, extending from imposing altarpieces to smaller religious paintings for private clients, from grand portraits to sensual episodes drawn from the classical tradition. Veronese was also an outstanding draughtsman, and his graphic oeuvre ranged from preliminary sketches to highly finished chiaroscuro sheets. A foreigner in Venice, he created paintings for Venetian clients and settings, as well for the mainland and export abroad. Thus, Veronese’s art was unusually versatile for its time. This magnificent exhibition will display this extraordinary versatility and examine Veronese’s artistic practice, concentrating on works from North American collections. For a sixteenth-century painter, many of whose works are in fresco or on enormous canvases still in situ, Veronese is unusually broadly represented in North America. At the same time, the broad spectrum of Veronese as a painter and draughtsman has not been available to American audiences in over two decades. This exhibition will thus be a major contribution to Veronese studies. Focusing attention on both little-known works as well as acknowledged masterpieces, it will discuss Veronese’s complicated chronology, his artistic process, technical discoveries, and issues of attribution, as well as exploring his depictions of sumptuous fabrics in his paintings, as well as the taste for and collecting of Veronese in America.

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HERB RITTS: L.A. Style

February 23, 2013 – May 19, 2013

Herb Ritts (American, 1952–2002) was a Los Angeles-based photographer who established an international reputation for his distinctive photographs of fashion models, nudes, and celebrities. From the late 1970s until his untimely death from AIDS in 2002, Ritts's ability to create photographs that successfully bridged the gap between art and commerce was not only a testament to the power of his imagination and technical skill but also marked the synergy between art, popular culture, and business that followed in the wake of the Pop Art movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This exhibition features a selection of Ritts's vintage prints, magazine covers, Polaroids, and commercial video projects.

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