March 25 - July 15, 2009

Mary Lucier is considered one of the pioneers of video as an art form. The artist’s 18-minute, five-channel video installation employs four video projections, two plasma screens, surround sound, and various rescued objects and artifacts to tell the story of the seismic changes sweeping the American Great Plains. Agri-business is supplanting family farms and changing small town life as we know it.  The Plains of Sweet Regret is a lyrical ode to this region as it moves toward an uncertain future.

ASIAN ART GALLERIES REOPEN AFTER TWO YEARS
Redesign Allows for Installation of New Collections

Birmingham, AL (June 22, 2009)-The Birmingham Museum of Art will reopen its Chinese and Japanese galleries on June 28, 2009 following extensive remodeling. The galleries were closed to accommodate the 2007 blockbuster exhibition, Pompeii: Tales from an Eruption. The redesign highlights the strengths of the collection and allows for the display of more objects.

"Many of the objects on view either have not been seen for many years or have never been seen by the public. The redesign gives us the chance to show the remarkable breadth and depth of our collections," says Don Wood, PhD, senior curator and Virginia and William M. Spencer III Curator of Asian Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. "Although no new footage was added to the galleries, a creative use of existing space enables us to show far more of the permanent collection than before."

On November 19, the Museum will open its new Wedgwood gallery featuring objects from the Buten Wedgwood Collection.  The Collection, which came to the Museum in the fall of 2008, includes more than 8,000 objects dating from the inception of the Wedgwood factory in 1759 through the mid-twentieth century. 

About 200 objects made in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries will be installed in the new gallery adjacent to the Beeson Wedgwood Collection on the Museum’s third floor.  Additionally, a group of pieces dating from the mid-twentieth century will be presented in the hallway immediately outside the gallery.  This new installation will build upon the Museum’s fabulous gallery of eighteenth-century Wedgwood and will further the story of the Wedgwood factory, undoubtedly one of the most important ceramics manufactories ever.

In celebration of the Wedgwood factory’s 250th anniversary, the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in Washington, D.C. is hosting an exhibition of more than 200 objects that illustrate the company’s unique history.  250 Years of Wedgwood Innovation and Artistry will present all periods of production as well as all ceramic types and decoration made by the factory.

The exhibition is drawn from both public and private collections, including the Birmingham Museum of Art, and will feature objects from Whoopi Goldberg and Martha Stewart’s own collections. 

The exhibition will be on display from October 3, 2009 through February 27, 2010.  The DAR Museum is located at 1776 D Street, NW, in Washington, D.C.  For more information, please visit www.DAR.org or call 202.628.1776. 

The Museum is pleased to announce the publication of European Cast Iron in the Birmingham Museum of Art, The Gustav Lamprecht and Maurice Garbáty Collections by Anne Forschler-Tarrasch, the Marguerite Jones Harbert and John M. Harbert III Curator of Decorative Arts.

This catalog provides a complete inventory of the collections of Lamprecht (Leipzig) and Garbáty (Berlin-Pankow) which consist mainly of objects from the Royal Prussian Foundries (Königlich Preußische Eisengießereien Gleiwitz [Gliwice], Berlin, Sayn) and private Berlin foundries (Seebass, Geiss or Devaranne) dating from the first half of the 19th century. As a result of their quality and desirability, such objects became internationally known as ”Berliner Eisen," ”Fer de Berlin" or "Berlin Iron." Cast iron objects from other foundries in Germany as well as from Austria and Russia are also to be found in these collections.

An overview of the history of iron casting from the 18th century on as well as of that of the two collections is followed by the catalog itself with 994 listed objects and a critical description of the individual entries including 508 medallions, medals, plaques and gems and 486 sculptures, jewelry and utilitarian objects such as candelabra, watch holders, sewing utensils, vases, bowls and paperweights.

Appendices including literary sources, iron foundries, foundry marks and the index of the objects complete this extensive compendium of cast iron objects.

The catalog will sell for $60, and will be available in the Museum Store by late August.

Research was supported by a generous grant from the Peter Krueger-Christie's Foundation.  The publication was supported by a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Members' Board of the Birmingham Museum of Art, and The Adele Pharo Azar Charitable Trust.

The Museum's Clarence B. Hanson, Jr. Library is featured in the latest edition of Black & White.

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