Albright-Knox Art Gallery Returns to Modernist Roots in Newest Exhibition

By Amanda McLaughlin:

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery returns to its modernist roots in its newest exhibition Spotlight on the Collection--Artists in Depth:  Picasso, Braque, Léger, Delaunay.  Presented by The Buffalo News, the exhibit is the first in a new series of exhibitions that feature works pulled from the gallery's Collection, with special focus on important artists whose works the Gallery has acquired in depth.  The series seeks to highlight a broad range of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the artists' careers, and will reach beyond the Gallery's well-known masterworks to pieces that bring "context and greater understanding to the chose artists' practices and their art-historical legacies."  Many of the works showcased will be unfamiliar to Albright-Knox audiences, as they have not been exhibited in some time.  The series seeks to "examine the richness and depth of the Albright-Knox's Collection through new perspectives."

With the initial exhibition, the gallery will display all works--more than seventy-five objects--by Picasso, Braque, Léger, and Delaunay housed in the Collection; all featured artists were twentieth-century pioneers of abstraction.  Picasso and Braque founded Cubism, Delaunay's "bright colors and geometric forms" prefigured geometric abstraction, and Léger's work, with its cylindrical forms, "interpreted the mechanical age and predated Pop Art."  The exhibition is organized by Curator Heather Pesanti and Curatorial Assistant Ilana Chelbowski.  

Spotlight on the Collection--Artists in Depth:  Picasso, Braque, Léger, Delaunay opens on Friday, January 21, 2011 and will run through Sunday, June 5, 2011.  The gallery will host a Member's Reception on Thursday, January 27, 2011, from 5PM-7PM, and an Art'scool Educator's Workshop--which seeks to "give educators hands-on opportunities to explore their creativity while learning how to share the work of featured artists with their students" on Thursday, February 3, 2011 from 4-7 PM.  The workshop is $18 for members, and $22 for non-members.  The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is located at 1285 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo.  Additional information on the gallery and exhibit (including gallery hours and admission fees) can be found at www.albrightknox.org, by calling 716.882.8700, or by emailing info@alrbrightknox.org.

Sonia Delaunay (French, born Russia, 1885-1979). Colored Rhythm, 1958. Oil on canvas, 45 x 34 1/4 inches (114.3 x 87 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1964.