ArtPourri

New Works for Philadelphia – The Philadelphia Museum of Art has announced that it has acquired, through several gifts and a purchase agreement with the Aperture Foundation, the core collection of photographs by Paul Strand, one of the pre-eminent photographers of the 20^th century.  The entire acquisition comprises more than 3,000 prints and lantern slides and, together with other photos by Strand already owned by the museum, will make the museum the world’s most important repository for the study of Strand’s work.  A major retrospective is scheduled for 2014.

New Postal Stamps – The U.S. Postal Service has announced the 2011 commemorative stamp program.  The Lunar New Year:  Year of the Rabbit stamp is the fourth of 12 stamps in the Celebrating Lunar New Year series.  Kumquats, fruit such as those depicted in the stamp art, are given as gifts and eaten for luck at this time of renewed hope for the future.  Art director Ethel Kessler worked on the series with illustrator Kam Mak.  The illustration was originally created using oil paints on panel.  The design incorporates the intricate paper-cut design of a rabbit and the Chinese character—drawn in grass-style calligraphy by Lau Bun—for “Rabbit.”

Online Project Debuts – The Norman Rockwell Museum has announced the online debut of ProjectNORMAN (New Online Rockwell Media Art & Archive Network), the public interface of its ongoing digitization efforts. Visitors to the Museum’s website, www.nrm.org, will be able to look through thousands of Norman Rockwell’s reference photos, preliminary sketches and paintings, and other items from the Museum’s art and archival collections.

Portrait on View – Chuck Close’s masterful portrait Fanny/Fingerpainting (1985) has returned to the National Gallery of Art East Building’s modern and contemporary galleries.  Showing the grandmother of the artist’s wife, this is one of the largest examples of the finger painting technique that Close developed in the mid-1980s.

Auction News – At Swann Galleries, two rare posters by the Art Nouveau artist Privat Livemont recently set records:  Bitter Oriental (1897) brought $10,200, while Rajah (1900) sold for $9,000.  Christie’s New York Latin American Art Fall Sale totaled $23.3 million.  Works by Diego Rivera, Fernando Botero, Rufino Tamayo and Beatriz Milhazes realized top prices, and 14 world auction records were achieved.

Gift for the Met – A landmark gift of $10 million to The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch will support the creation of a major exhibition space within its Costume Institute.  Beginning in 2012, this gift will allow the museum to proceed with the complete renovation of its costume-related exhibition galleries.