PAFA Is Only East Coast Venue for Peter Saul: A Retrospective
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, November 5, 2024


PAFA Is Only East Coast Venue for Peter Saul: A Retrospective
Peter Saul, Cold Sweat, 1999; Acrylic on canvas; Private collection, New York ; courtesy David Nolan Gallery, New York.



PHILADELPHIA, PA.- The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is the only East Coast venue for the most comprehensive survey of Peter Saul's work ever to appear in the United States. Peter Saul: A Retrospective will be on view in PAFA’s Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building, October 18, 2008 – January 4, 2009. PAFA is proud to announce an exciting and ambitious series of public programs in conjunction with the exhibition that will engage scholars, Saul’s contemporaries, and the artist himself.

Peter Saul has challenged viewers and the art world with his hilarious yet transgressive figure paintings. Unafraid to tackle difficult political subjects or examine both the individual or national psyche, Saul is one of the most influential and divisive artists of his generation. Organized by the Orange County Museum of Art and curated at PAFA by Curator of Modern Art Robert Cozzolino, Peter Saul: A Retrospective is the first major American survey of Saul’s work, featuring 50 paintings and drawings from 1958 to the present, including large-scale “historical epics,” satires of art history, and several of Saul’s most recent paintings addressing World War II and the war in Iraq. PAFA’s presentation will include material not shown at other venues, borrowed directly from the artist, including several working sketches and Clemunteena Gweenburg (1971) from his scathing series of Art World Portraits. Saul will also debut a painting, currently in progress, inspired by Thomas Eakins’s Portrait of Dr. Gross (The Gross Clinic) this fall.

Peter Saul (American, b. 1934) is among the handful of American painters and collage artists whose groundbreaking proto-Pop achievements in the late 1950s and early 1960s were demoted once the champions of that movement were anointed a few years later. Saul has always forged his own path, creating often difficult, funny, and trenchant works—“sick jokes” according to Robert Storr, distinguished curator and dean of the Yale School of Art. His art embraces personal foibles and important events in American history, such as the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. His twisted comic-book forms, artificially hot colors, controversial subject matter, and unquenchable ambition to provoke strong feelings through his paintings have kept him on the edges of the art world while also preserving, for over forty years, the freshness of his work.

“I have long been an admirer of Peter’s work and am thrilled that we’re able to present it to Philadelphia,” said Robert Cozzolino, Curator of Modern Art. “It is true that his work can be shocking, but it should be seen within the context of a long tradition of allegorical and history painting as well as the potentially devastating genre of satire. In this context, Peter’s work makes perfect sense at PAFA as it integrates many aspects of our institutional identity, as a renowned historical collection, teaching institution, and place to make and experience high quality contemporary art. Peter is among the bravest, most accomplished, and influential artists of his generation. This retrospective is a major event.”

Public programming for Peter Saul: A Retrospective will include guest lectures by David McCarthy, Dan Cameron, Robert Cozzolino, Robert Storr, and an evening with Chris Ware; a Philadelphia area art school mixer; a master class taught by Peter Saul; and a special symposium and panel discussion entitled “On the Limits and Possibilities of Politics in Art” featuring Laylah Ali, Enrique Chagoya, Sue Coe, Daniel Heyman, Irving Petlin, Jane Irish, Peter Saul, and Art Spiegelman. Keynote address by David Carrier. Moderated by Patricia Hills and Robert Cozzolino.










Today's News

October 20, 2008

Bruegel to Rubens: Masters of Flemish Painting Exhibition Opens at The Royal Collection

Roman Culture Brought to Life in Kunsthal Rotterdam Exhibition

Serial Landscape Photographs by Three Legendary Photographers on view at National Gallery of Art

Lucian Freud's Portrait of Francis Bacon Sells for 5.4 Million Pounds at Christie's

PAFA Is Only East Coast Venue for Peter Saul: A Retrospective

Film Society Mounts the Most Complete Retrospective of Polish Filmmaker's Work

Spectacular Paintings by Volanakis, Ralli and Gysis lead Sotheby's Sale of Greek Art in November

Dutch Factory Girls: Photos from the Collection of the National Archive on View in Denmark

October UBS 12 X 12 Presents Industry of the Ordinary at Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago

One Hundred Works by Latin American Artist Fernando Botero on View in Memphis

Spertus Museum Presents Double Vision Exhibition

A Major Exhibition of Paintings by George Tooker Presented at the National Academy Museum

The McNay Mounts a Major Retrospective of the Kinetic Sculptures of George Rickey

Exploring Surrealism, a New American Century and the Manipulation of Film Stock

Conversations in Clay at the Katonah Museum of Art

New sculpture in Babbidge Library to be dedicated Oct. 23




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful