National Gallery Of Art Monumental Renaissance Sculpture Exhibition To Close ... Dada Exhibition To Replace It

Monumental Sculpture from Renaissance Florence: Ghiberti, Nanni di Banco, and Verrocchio at Orsanmichele closing February 26, 2006 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

For Web-based resources, please see:

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/orsanmicheleinfo.shtm

"Three monumental masterpieces of Italian Renaissance sculpture by Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), Nanni di Banco (c. 1380/1385-1421), and Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488) will travel to the National Gallery of Art marking the completion of their restoration. It is the first time that major works by Ghiberti and Nanni di Banco have traveled to the United States. The works on view, Ghiberti's St. Matthew (1419-1421), Nanni di Banco's Quattro Santi Coronati (Four Martyred Saints) (c.1409-1416), and Verrocchio's Christ and St. Thomas (1466-1483), were originally created for the exterior of Orsanmichele in Florence, and they represent the highest achievement of 15th-century Florentine sculpture. During the Renaissance, Orsanmichele, one of the most important though less well-known Renaissance structures, functioned both as a church and a grain storage and market facility; the Florentine trade guilds chose it as the site for statues of their patron saints. Since 1984 the statues have been undergoing much-needed restoration; the building has been closed to the public since 2002. Once the statues return to Florence, Orsanmichele will again be open, making it highly improbable that its works should ever be allowed to travel again."

*

DADA: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, and Paris Exhibition opening February 19, 2006 at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

For Web-based resources, please see:

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/dadainfo.shtm

"Dada, one of the crucially significant movements of the historical avant-garde, was born in the heart of Europe in the midst of World War I. In the wake of that brutal conflict, Dadaists raucously challenged tradition, and art-making was changed forever. The most comprehensive museum exhibition of Dada art ever mounted in the United States, Dada features painting, sculpture, photography, film, collage, and readymades emerging in six cities: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, and Paris. The exhibition presents many of the most influential figures in the history of modernism, as well as others less known, including Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber, Hans Richter, Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann, George Grosz, John Heartfield, Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, and Marcel Duchamp."
















Image credit: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.