The Museum of Design Atlanta, the Southeast’s only museum focused on design in its many forms, recently announced its 2014 schedule. MODA, which moved across Peachtree Street from the High Museum of Art in 2011, will celebrate its 25th birthday in ‘14.
Following “Paul Rand: Defining Design,” a show about the late, influential graphic designer that has been extended through Jan. 30, the slate includes:
- "Hidden Heroes: The Genius of Everyday Things" (Feb. 23-May 11): Organized by the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, this show conveys the design stories behind 36 objects, such as adhesive bandages and umbrellas, that have, in their own way, revolutionized the way we live.
- "Design Revolution: Innovating for a Better World" (May 25-Aug. 3): This MODA-curated exhibit explores the ways Southeastern designers, engineers, students, professors, architects and social entrepreneurs are addressing 21st century challenges from purifying water to sheltering the homeless.
- "A Visual History of AIGA: 1913-2013" (Aug. 17-Oct. 5): Features work created for the organization initially known as the American Institute of Graphic Arts by talents including Rand, Andy Warhol, Saul Bass and Ivan Chermayeff.
- "Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair" (Oct. 19-Jan. 4, 2015): For five-plus decades beginning in 1958, the Ebony Fashion Fair brought couture designs from Paris, Milan, New York and London to African-Americans in American cities including Atlanta. The exhibit details how fashion became a vehicle for black empowerment, pride and achievement.
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays (until 8 p.m. Thursdays), noon-5 p.m. Sundays. 1315 Peachtree St., Atlanta. $10; $8 seniors, military and educators; $5 ages 6-17 and college students. 404-979-6455, www.museumofdesign.org.
THEATER
‘Newsies’ to play Fox in 2013-14
The Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Atlanta 2014-15 season will include the Tony Award-winning musical “Newsies.”
Broadway in Atlanta will announce engagement dates and ticket information for the Fox Theatre run by the 2012 Tony winner (for best score and best choreography) at a later date.
Inspired by the real-life Newsboy Strike of 1899, “Newsies” tells the tale of Jack Kelly, leader of a ragged band of teenaged “newsies” who leads a citywide protest when Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raise distribution prices.
Based on the 1992 film of the same name, “Newsies” features music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman and a book by Harvey Fierstein.
More info: www.broadwayinatlanta.com, www.newsiesthemusical.com/tour.
VISUAL ART
Explaining Finster’s bull market
An unusually large (4-foot-square) Howard Finster painting fetched $43,000 at Slotin Folk Art Auction this month in Buford, the two-day auction’s highest sale and the highest price ever paid for work by the ultra prolific late Georgia folk artist at the twice-yearly Slotin auctions.
That’s in keeping with a trend of early Finster paintings going for unusually large amounts, including two that topped Slotin’s April auction at $37,500 and $36,000.
We asked Margaret Browne, owner-director of Chivaree Southern Art & Design (www.chivarts.com), a new gallery in Cashiers, N.C., for her expert take on the escalating prices. (Counting a 20 percent buyer's premium, the final price of this month's top-seller was actually $51,600.)
Browne, who grew up in Atlanta and graduated from the Westminster Schools in 1993 before earning degrees at Georgetown and Princeton universities, attended this month’s auction. As factors in renewed interest, she cited the ongoing restoration of Finster’s Paradise Garden art environment in northwest Georgia as well as a career retrospective exhibit, “Stranger in Paradise.” That show, which concluded a seven-city national tour this year, was a potent collection of works by the preacher who turned to folk art to broadcast messages about sin and salvation.
But that’s just part of the picture, Browne said.
“I think prices like these are going to be the new norm for really good Finsters — the lower-numbered, thoughtfully made and highly original ones,” she said. “If anything, they are still greatly undervalued because they are still seen as ‘folk’ and not simply 20th century American art, although that is changing. Never underestimate Finster — he is one of the great 20th-century American artists.”
Browne recalled New York folk art dealer Phyllis Kind saying at symposium that if you owned an early Finster (produced before he became famous and older and started to mass produce his work), you’d be “insane” to sell it because she expected values to skyrocket.
“I think she was totally right,” Browne said. “I sold a couple of Finsters when I first opened my gallery, but I can’t see the sense in selling them right now at the prices they get. It’s like selling gold when it’s $250 an ounce.”
Sundblom’s Santas extended at Oglethorpe
The Oglethorpe University Museum of Art has extended the exhibition “Haddon Sundblom: Santa Paintings” through Dec. 21. The show includes the illustrator’s famed images for the Coca-Cola Company and other vintage advertising materials. The museum also will host special events including:
- 4 p.m. Dec. 1: "Swingin' with the Santas" featuring jazz singer Francine Reed with the Brent Runnels Trio in a concert of Christmas favorites. $10.
- 7 p.m. Dec. 4: "Keeping Christmas: From Pagan to Puritan to Popular Culture," a lecture by museum director Elizabeth Peterson. $5.
- 1-4 p.m. Dec. 7, 14 and 21: Santa Claus and Elf Evie, just in from the North Pole, will visit with children, pose for photos and distribute treats.
Meanwhile, "Picasso, Braque & Leger: 20th Century Modern Masters" closes Dec. 8. Noon-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays. Admission: $5, free under age 12. 4484 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-364-8555, http://museum.oglethorpe.edu.
