An essential feature of Renaissance and Baroque culture, an instrument of knowledge as well as of aesthetic pleasure, at a meeting point of art and science, the cabinet of curiosities disappears before rationalism in the Age of Enlightenment, mainly surviving in the secret museums of some nostalgic collectors. At the beginning of the 20th century, it only aroused the interest of historians, amateurs of the bizarre and the surrealists who appreciated its strangeness and poetic aspects. We needed to wait till the following century to witness the cabinet of curiosity achieve a paradoxical resurgence and take on a new lease of life. After having gained acceptance thanks to ‘La Licorne et Le Bézoard’, an exhibition in Poitiers, France, in 2013, which proposed to retrace its history, the cabinet of curiosities benefits from a very different approach in the

Sunflowers (1889), one of Vincent van Gogh’s best-known paintings, is the centrepiece of the summer exhibition Van Gogh and the Sunflowers. A great deal of study has been devoted to this masterpiece from the Van Gogh Museum’s collection in recent years. How did the painting come about, what significance did this flower have for Van Gogh and what did he hope to achieve with his Sunflowers? The exhibition presents the results of the recent technical research carried out on the painting, which Van Gogh himself considered to be among the best things he ever did. How did he approach the work, how has it been affected by the discolouration of certain pigments, and what do we now know about the painting’s restoration history and current condition? Painted reconstructions have been created for the exhibition to give an impression of the colours as they originally looked. The public will also have a first opportunity to se

At London Art Week Summer 2019, Georg Laue, Kunstkammer Ltd and Trinity Fine Art will unveil a major Renaissance artwork: a magnificent Court Casket with trompe l’oeil marquetry and engraving made in Nuremberg in 1565 by The Master of Perspective. For centuries the Casket was in the famed collection of the marquesses of Lothian at Newbattle Abbey, and has not been seen in public since 1883. The cabinet will be exhibited at Trinity Fine Art, 15 Old Bond Street, from 25th June until 25th July 2019. Research on this Casket by Georg Laue, Kunstkammer Ltd has established it as one of the earliest examples of Kunstkammer (cabinet of curiosities) furniture. More importantly, it connects Wenzel Jamnitzer’s newly-invented perspective machine and eleven important works of South German marquetry, including the present Casket, that feature polyhedra in a three-dimensional manner, firmly establishing that they were all made in the

This summer, the McNay Art Museum presents two innovative and inclusive exhibitions—Andy Warhol: Portraits and Transamerica/n: Gender, Identity, Appearance Today—from June 20 to September 15, 2019. Andy Warhol: Portraits features over 120 paintings, prints, photographs, films, and videos that depict the artist’s favorite genre. The exhibition presents a vibrant snapshot of New York’s art and social scene from the 1960s through the 1980s with portraits of Warhol’s inner circle; among them Joan Collins, Debbie Harry, Dennis Hopper, Mick Jagger, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol himself. Andy Warhol: Portraits invites the viewer into Warhol’s world by examining the artist’s personal life, studio process, and use of a variety of mediums. A substantial media experience—nine different video, television

The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State announced the opening of a third special exhibition for the summer, George Miller and American Lithography, which opened June 18. The exhibition is selected entirely from the museum’s expansive permanent collection and features thirty-eight prints by an impressive roster of artists who worked with master printer George Miller (1894-1965) to create some of their most memorable and recognizable works. “We are dedicated to bringing our audiences exhibitions that unearth new research and this is the first in-depth study of George Miller and his decades-long collaboration with American artists in nearly half a century,” said Erin M. Coe, Director of the Palmer Museum of Art. Organized and curated by Charles V. Hallman Senior Curator Patrick McGrady, George Miller and