Medals of Arts Awarded--President and Mrs. Bush have awarded the 2002 National Medal of Arts, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence, to nine recipients. Included among these are Florence Knoll Bassett, designer/architect; Lawrence Halprin, landscape architect/environmental planner; Al Hirschfeld, artist/caricaturist (posthumously); Ming Cho Lee, painter/stage designer; and Philippe de Montebello, Director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than 25 years.

Memorial Planned--Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman have won a competition to design a 9/11 memorial for the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Benches engraved with the names of 184 victims will be the centerpiece of the two-acre memorial, which is targeted for completion by Sept. 11, 2004. The cost--at five to over seven million dollars--will be covered by donations.

Statue to be Unveiled--On April 5th a bronze statue of President Lincoln and his son Tad will be unveiled at the Civil War Visitor Center of the National Park Service in Richmond, VA. The U.S. Historical Society, in commemoration of the 13th anniversary of the pair's visit five days before the end of the Civil War in 1865, commissioned the life-size statue by sculptor David Frech. The statue was cast at the Tallix Art Foundry in Beacon, NY.

Arts and Letters Members Elected--The American Academy of Arts and Letters has elected eight new members to fill vacancies, with a May induction. Included among the artists are Jennifer Bartlett, Yvonne Jacquette, William King, and the late Al Hirschfeld. Selected by their peers, most artists consider admission one of the highest honors they can achieve. The Academy's permanent collection includes 25,000 books and 2,000 original manuscripts, paintings and photos illuminating the lives and work of members.

Sketch Stolen--From Jail!--A 1965 sketch by Salvador Dali has been stolen from the lobby of the men's jail at Rikers Island (NY) and replaced with a copy. The framed 4' x 3' ink and pencil sketch of Jesus Christ had been locked in a display case in an area that was staffed around the clock. An investigation is in progress.

Exhibitions

Denver -- Denver Art Museum -- Fabulous Floral Fabrics showcases more than 15 colorful textiles from America, Europe, and Asia that illustrate identifiable plants as well as fantastic fictitious flowers. Featured is the museum's Pratt Family Quilt, which was made in the 1840's for a Philadelphia family and measures nearly ten feet square. Through May 4.

Chicago -- The Art Institute of Chicago -- A Century of Collecting: African American Art in The Art Institute of Chicago marks the museum's first comprehensive overview of its most important holdings of work by African American artists. More than half of the 60 artists represented in the exhibition are living and still producing work. Through May 18.

Toledo -- Toledo Museum of Art -- Van Gogh: Fields is the first exhibition solely to address the artist's painted renderings of one of his most cherished themes, the representation of the field in its many guises. This tightly focused exhibit features 22 paintings and five drawings and watercolors. Through May 18.

Atlanta High Museum Rodin and French Sculpture of the Late 19th Century features the museum's fourth acquisition by Rodin, a sculpted portrait of Victor Hugo, as well as works by such contemporaries as Medardo Rosso, Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, and Jules Dalou. Through May 25.

Roslyn Harbor, NY -- Nassau County Museum of Art -- A Century of Prints: 1900-2000 explores how artists enriched their visual legacy by innovative printmaking techniques and also demonstrates the importance of prints as works of art. Approximately 150 examples of the art of printmaking, spanning the School of Paris to present-day Americans, are included by artists such as Renoir, Bonnard, Chagall, Cassatt, Hopper, Avery, Motherwell, Hockney and more. Through May 25.

Los Angeles -- J. Paul Getty Museum -- Surrealist Muse: Lee Miller, Roland Penrose and Man Ray focuses on Lee Miller's life and role as a source of inspiration for paintings, drawings, mixed media works and photographs by Penrose and Ray and as a creative artist working in photography. Miller herself created a highly inventive and significant body of photographs that embraces Surrealism. Through June 15.

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Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 13 No. 6 -- April 2003