Donald J. Pliner Returns To Footwear Industry Launching “From the Mountains of Italy” and “From the Beaches of Spain”, the Femme and Homme Collections

Following the year-long completion of a non-complete clause (after having sold his company), iconic footwear designer Donald J. Pliner has returned to the industry as the designer for “From the Mountains of Italy” and “From the Beaches of Spain,” the Femme and Homme Collections. The collections were presented to the media and retailers in early August 2016 during FFANY at his stunning new Penthouse Showroom at 14 East 60th Street in New York and will also be showcased at FN PLATFORM in Las Vegas. This marks the first time in over 27 years that he finds himself as an independent designer, away from the eponymous label Donald J Pliner™ he founded in 1989.

Donald J. Pliner (PRNewsFoto/Donald J. Pliner)

“Everything I design revolves around the two most important classes I took in design school – Anatomy and Portraiture. Anatomy for the comfort and Portraiture to keep the eye engaged. This has long been my signature style. It’s simply the way I think,” says Pliner. “Colors and materials come first, then the designs, but most important exceptionally comfortable fashion.”

Pliner personally designed the two new collections, spending the last month directing and overseeing the creation of every style first hand in Italy and Spain. Each style is meticulously and expertly beaded, embroidered, and embellished by hand onto the lavish uppers of haircalf, white ostrich, silk and mesh elastic prints, crocodile embossed calfskin, nappa and vachetta leathers, black and pearled patents, and washed suedes. All colors and materials within the collections are seamlessly coordinated in a palette of saturated colors, distinctive prints and bold embroidered designs.

Femme collections “From the Mountains of Italy” and “From the Beaches of Spain” include sneakers, smoking slippers, chic slides, footbed sandals, madras wrapped wedges, kitten heels, mules, and stacked platforms.

Homme collections “From the Mountains of Italy” and “From the Beaches of Spain” showcase sneakers, smoking slippers, monk straps, oxfords, Chelsea boots, loafers, drivers, and espadrilles. The vast array of styles across the collections are brimming with comfort features ideal for walking such as extra cushioned insoles, rocker bottoms, and rubber soles.

Penthouse Showroom: “From the Mountains of Italy” & “From the Beaches of Spain” Femme and Homme Collections (PRNewsFoto/Donald J. Pliner)

“From jeans to tuxedo dressing.”: The quality of detail and the uniqueness of designs in these collections are of a level normally only found in bespoke footwear. The collections offer exceptional craftsmanship and luxury comfort with price ranging from $250 to $475 rsp.

In other news, Castanea Partners (Owners of DJP Holdings, LLC) is suing Pliner to stop him from launching his new footwear collections. DJP Holdings, LLC filed a lawsuit against Pliner and his wife Lisa Pliner, trying to keep them from proceeding with his new collections.

In 2011, Pliner sold a majority stake in his namesake brand to a private equity firm, Castanea Partners. At the time the new partners recognized that his “talents and abilities” were “unique” and that they were “integral to the success of the company.” After the sale, Pliner remained as Creative Director for the brand. In the following years, however, it became apparent that the new majority partners and the newly appointed management had a different vision for the brand than its founder.

Last year, Pliner stepped down as its Creative Director when he realized that he could no longer identify with the direction the brand was taking. “It is with bittersweet emotions that I announce that I have decided to leave the company I founded,” said Pliner in a 2015 statement, announcing his departure.

Regarding the new legal action initiated against him by the owners of the namesake brand he founded, designer Donald J. Pliner says: “I am sad and disappointed by this news. In an effort not to publicly harm the brand and the value of the company I founded and in which I hold a minority interest, I did not seek a public confrontation. Instead, I fully complied with my contract obligations after the one-year non-compete period. I just launched two new collections meant to present my vision, craftsmanship, and personalized attention to the public. The only explanation I have is that this must be a misguided attempt to prevent the launch of my new collections. I am delighted to return to my passion of designing, and feel the same joy and excitement for my two new collections that I felt 27 years ago when I founded a brand I believed in. With all of my heart, I want to thank my wife Lisa, daughter Starr (can you believe she just turned 12), my family, my friends, my team, my longstanding buyers who have expressed their support and encouragement, and most of all – my fans for all of your excitement and warm reception. You keep me young and keep my passion alive. In my heart, I am hopeful that Donald J Pliner™ (the brand) and the designer Donald J. Pliner can find a way to co-exist and be one again.“

Fall 2016 Art Preview: The Philadelphia Museum of Art Announces Full Slate of Fall 2016/Spring 2017 Exhibitions

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA 19130) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount at the northwest end of Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The museum administers collections containing over 227,000 objects including major holdings of European, American and Asian origin. The various classes of artwork include sculpture, paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, armor and decorative arts.

The Museum administers several annexes including the Rodin Museum, also located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, which is located across the street just north of the main building. The Perelman Building, which opened in 2007, houses more than 150,000 prints, drawings and photographs, along with 30,000 costume and textile pieces, and over 1,000 modern and contemporary design objects including furniture, ceramics and glasswork. The museum also administers the historic colonial-era houses of Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove, both located in Fairmount Park.

The full slate of exhibitions scheduled for the upcoming year will feature classic furniture from an historical Philadelphia home, the re-opening of the newly renovated South Asia Galleries, a major show highlighting works from Mexico’s greatest Modernist artists and a newly acquired work by the acclaimed Mumbai-based artist Jitish Kallat.

Classical Splendor: Painted Furniture for a Grand Philadelphia House

September 3, 2016–January 1, 2017

Curators: Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, The Montgomery-Garvan Curator of American Decorative Arts; Peggy Olley, Associate Conservator of Furniture and Woodwork

Location: Lynne and Harold Honickman Gallery and Muriel and Philip Berman Gallery

Sideboard, 1808 designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, (Purchased with the gift [by exchange] of Mrs. Alex Simpson, Jr., and A. Carson Simpson, and with funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Raley and various donors, 1986-126-3) Photograph by Gavin Ashworth, New York

This exhibition will showcase a set of furniture designed by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe and made in Philadelphia in 1808 for the home of William and Mary Wilcocks Waln, which stood at the southeast corner of Seventh and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia. The Museum’s ten surviving pieces of furniture from the Walns’ original set will be shown in a new light, after a comprehensive five-year curatorial study and conservation treatment. It will highlight the team of makers—the designer (Latrobe), the builder (John Aitken), the painter (George Bridport), and the upholsterer (John Rea) who ushered a new style of classical art into American interiors. The Walns’ drawing rooms and their furniture provided a setting imitating the art and culture of ancient Greece. The exhibition considers Latrobe’s groundbreaking “klismos” chair design and will reveal the London-trained Bridport as a visionary who translated Latrobe’s design for the walls into classical designs for the painted furniture and whose work is represented today only by the surviving Waln furniture. Through the use of large-scale computer renderings and various other interactive elements, visitors will be able to explore the way the house’s two drawing rooms were furnished and how their settings interacted with the rest of the house and the gardens, which were also designed by Latrobe. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog.

Furniture Grouping: Side Chairs, Sideboard, Card Table, and Sofa, 1808, designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Photograph by Gavin Ashworth, New York

Support for this exhibition is provided by The Richard C. von Hess Foundation and The Laura and William C. Buck Endowment for Exhibitions, as well as Linda H. Kaufman, Stiles Tuttle Colwill, Kathy and Ted Fenberger, Leslie Miller and Richard Worley, Boo and Morris Stroud, and other generous donors. The publication is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Conservation support was provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Richard C. von Hess Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, and The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Fall 2016 Art Preview: Bruce Nauman: Contrapposto Studies, I through VII at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

September 18, 2016 – January 8, 2017

Curators: Carlos Basualdo, The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art and Erica F. Battle, The John Alchin and Hal Marryatt Associate Curator of Contemporary Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art will premiere an ambitious new project this fall by Bruce Nauman. Since the 1960s, Nauman’s work has questioned the very nature of what constitutes art and being an artist, probed the possibilities of the body as subject and tool for performance, and explored the relationship between language and meaning. A pioneer of performance art, durational practices, and time-based media, Nauman has established a conceptually rigorous approach across sculpture, sound, installation, film, and video that continues to inspire younger generations of artists working in these forms today.

The installation takes as its point of departure his seminal video work Walk with Contrapposto of 1968, in which the artist performed an exaggerated walk along a tall narrow corridor that he had built in order to stage the action. Nauman’s new work, which is titled Contrapposto Studies, I through VII, consists of seven large scale video projections with sound in an installation specifically scaled for two galleries in the Museum on the occasion of its premiere. In each of the projections, Nauman is seen from two viewpoints walking in contrapposto, his image rendered both in positive and negative, and at times fragmented and stacked in two horizontal strata.

(For additional information, please go to https://fashionpluslifestyle.wordpress.com/2016/08/14/fall-2016-art-preview-bruce-nauman-contrapposto-studies-i-through-vii-at-the-philadelphia-museum-of-art/)

New South Asia Art Galleries, Re-opening October 2, 2016

Curator: Darielle Mason, The Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art

Indra, Lord of Storms and King of the Gods’ Realm, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, c. 1200, Mercury-gilded copper alloy with spinel rubies, rock crystal, and turquoise, 15 7/8 × 9 3/4 × 8 1/2 inches (40.3 × 24.8 × 21.6 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Stella Kramrisch Collection (1994-148-596)

The Museum undertook a comprehensive transformation of the galleries dedicated to its outstanding collection of art from the Indian subcontinent and the Himalayan regions. It updated the physical gallery space and re-imagined how the masterworks tell their stories. The overarching purpose was to inspire curiosity, to ignite emotion, and to deepen visitor engagement with the art and cultures of South Asia.

Amara Beah (The Immortal Marriage) Shiva and his wife Parvati at home in the Himalayas, c. 1700-1725, Mankot, Himachal Pradesh, (Pahari region) India, Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, Image: 9 × 6 1/8 inches (22.9 × 15.6 cm) Sheet: 11 3/8 × 8 9/16 inches (28.9 × 21.7 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Stella Kramrisch Collection (1994-148-509)

The Museum’s exceptional collection of art from the Indian subcontinent gained prominence in 1919, with the donation of a South Indian temple hall, making Philadelphia the only place outside Asia where a visitor could experience the sculpted figures and architecture unique to the temples of India. Dr. Stella Kramrisch (1896–1993), one of the twentieth century’s preeminent historians of India’s art, built the Museum’s South Asian collections, expanding them to include a full range of sculptures, paintings, textiles, and folk arts from across the subcontinent along with masterpieces of Buddhist art from Tibet. She donated over one thousand works of art. In recent decades, all aspects of the collection have been further enriched by important gifts and acquisitions including, notably, the bequest of Dr. Alvin O. Bellak’s extensive collection of Indian “miniature” paintings in 2004.

Tara, Goddess of Compassion, 18th-19th century, Made in Dolon Nor, Duolun County, Chahar Province, Inner Mongolia, China, Gilded bronze, Approximately: 45 x 38 x 26 inches (114.3 x 96.5 x 66 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of John T. Morris (1911-98)

The re-installation of the Museum’s galleries of South Asian Art was made possible by the Estate of Phyllis T. Ballinger, The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Hersha, Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, William Penn Foundation, Gupta Family Foundation Ujala, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and The McLean Contributionship. Additional funds were contributed by Steve and Gretchen Burke, Sailesh and Manidipa Chowdhury, Mr. and Mrs. Donald Kimelman, Mr. and Mrs. Shantanu RoyChowdhury, Pamela and Ajay Raju, the Jones Wajahat Family, Drs. Julia A. and Eugene P. Ericksen, Ira Brind and Stacey Spector, Lyn M. Ross, Andrea Baldeck M.D., Shanta and Sumana Ghosh, Dr. Krishna Lahiri, David and Jean Yost, and other generous donors.

Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910–1950

October 25, 2016–January 6, 2017

Curators: Matthew Affron, The Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Mark A. Castro, Project Assistant Curator, European Painting, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Dafe Cruz Porchini, Postdoctoral Researcher, Colegio de México, Mexico City and Renalto González Mello, Director of the Institute for Aesthetic Investigation, National Autonomous University of Mexico

Location: Dorrance Special Exhibition Galleries

Self-Portrait on the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States, 1932, by Frida Kahlo (Colección Maria y Manuel Reyero, New York) © Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, in partnership with the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, will present a landmark exhibition that takes a new and long overdue look at an extraordinary moment in the history of Mexican art. It will be the most comprehensive exhibition of Mexican modernism to be seen in the United States in more than seven decades and will feature an extraordinary range of images, from portable murals and large and small paintings to prints and photographs, books and broadsheets. Some of the finest works by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, including Frida Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo, will be presented, along with works that show the broader panorama of Mexican art during this period, as well as the historical context in which the visual arts played an important role. In this country, Paint the Revolution, will be seen only in Philadelphia before traveling to Mexico City in 2017. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue in English and Spanish.

Liberation of the Peon, 1931, by Diego Rivera (Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Cameron Morris, 1943-46-1) © Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Paint the Revolution is co-organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City. Bank of America is the National Sponsor. In Philadelphia, the exhibition is made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, PECO, Christie’s, Bimbo Bakeries USA, The Mexican Society of Philadelphia in honor of Henry Clifford, and The Annenberg Foundation for Major Exhibitions, with additional support from Barbara B. and Theodore R. Aronson, Martha Hamilton Morris and I. Wistar Morris III, G. Theodore and Nancie Burkett, an anonymous donor, and other generous donors.

Dance in Tehuantepec, 1928, by Diego Rivera (Clarissa and Edgar Bronfman Jr. Collection) © Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The accompanying catalogue in English and Spanish is made possible by the Mary Street Jenkins Foundation. The English language edition is additionally supported by the Davenport Family Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and by Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund. Exhibition travel courtesy of American Airlines

(See additional information at https://fashionpluslifestyle.wordpress.com/2016/08/14/the-philadelphia-museum-of-art-to-present-paint-the-revolution-mexican-modernism-1910-1950-most-comprehensive-exhibition-of-mexican-modern-art-in-the-united-states-in-70-years/)

Fall 2016 Art Preview: Bruce Nauman: Contrapposto Studies, I through VII at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

September 18, 2016 – January 8, 2017

Curators: Carlos Basualdo, The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art and Erica F. Battle, The John Alchin and Hal Marryatt Associate Curator of Contemporary Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art will premiere an ambitious new project this fall by Bruce Nauman. Since the 1960s, Nauman’s work has questioned the very nature of what constitutes art and being an artist, probed the possibilities of the body as subject and tool for performance, and explored the relationship between language and meaning. A pioneer of performance art, durational practices, and time-based media, Nauman has established a conceptually rigorous approach across sculpture, sound, installation, film, and video that continues to inspire younger generations of artists working in these forms today.

Working in sculpture, film and video, installation, performance, and sound, Bruce Nauman is one of the most influential artists of his generation. He was born in 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and studied at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of California, Davis. After graduate school, Nauman occupied a storefront studio in the space of an old grocery store in San Francisco. There, an old neon beer sign served as inspiration for Nauman’s celebrated neon, The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths (Window or Wall Sign), 1967, which became a major acquisition by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2007. Nauman’s first solo debut in New York was at the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1968, and his first major museum survey was co-organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1972. In 1994, Nauman’s traveling retrospective and catalogue raisonné were organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, in association with the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Following the presentation of Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens at the official U.S. entry to the 53rd Venice Biennale, Nauman’s two new sound works produced in concert with that project, Days and Giorni, had their United States premiere at the Museum in 2009. (The artist lives in New Mexico with his wife, the artist Susan Rothenberg.)

The installation takes as its point of departure his seminal video work Walk with Contrapposto of 1968, in which the artist performed an exaggerated walk along a tall narrow corridor that he had built in order to stage the action. Nauman’s new work, which is titled Contrapposto Studies, I through VII, consists of seven large scale video projections with sound in an installation specifically scaled for two galleries in the Museum on the occasion of its premiere. In each of the projections, Nauman is seen from two viewpoints walking in contrapposto, his image rendered both in positive and negative, and at times fragmented and stacked in two horizontal strata.

Video still from Contrapposto Studies, I through VII, 2016, Bruce Nauman, Courtesy the artist and Sperone Westwater, New York, ©Bruce Nauman/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Contrapposto translates as “counterpose” from the Italian and refers to a pose that first appeared in Greek classical sculpture to introduce dynamism into the representation of the figure. Nauman’s original appropriation of the pose in motion in 1968 questioned the boundaries between performance and sculpture through the relatively new medium of video. In 2016, he transforms his original gesture by exposing it to digital manipulation and recombination, which give the appearance of his body alternatively coming together and disintegrating while remaining the stable focus of the composition. The soundtrack of each projection captures the multiplicity of the artist’s movements, which are seen both forwards and backwards, compounding the relationship between the aural and the visual experience of his action. Through the combined effects of Contrapposto Studies, I through VII, Nauman dwells on the history and possibility of representation while elliptically referencing his own biography.

Timothy Rub, the George D. Widener Director and CEO, stated: “Part of what is extraordinary in Nauman’s work is his ability to choreograph with space, movement and sound. The monumental nature of this new work offers an all-encompassing experience that commands our attention and underscores the Museum’s committment to presenting the most exciting art of our time.”

Basualdo added: ”This new work by Nauman is both a video installation and an amazing sound composition. That he has used a foundational moment in the history of Western sculpture to create a rich field of interrelated references, across media as well as time, is a testimony to his status as one of the most important artists working today.”

The installation builds upon the Museum’s deep commitment to the artist. In 2009, the Museum organized a three-site exhibition of his work representing the United States in the 53rd Venice Biennale of 2009 that garnered the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. Following the premiere of Contrapposto Studies, I through VII, the Museum will dedicate one of its permanent collection galleries to a long-term presentation of select works by Nauman.

Support for this exhibition has been provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Daniel W. Dietrich II Fund for Excellence in Contemporary Art, and by Isabel and Agustín Coppel

Concurrent Exhibition: The Sperone Westwater Gallery in New York, which has represented the artist since 1975, will present a complementary new work by Nauman, Contrapposto Studies, i through vii, from September 10 until October 29. Consisting of seven projections with sound, the work reverses the direction of the artist’s movements in Contrapposto Studies, I through VII as well as the sequence of the individual projections.

Olga Launches Flirty Line, A Sexy Intimates Collection Available In Expanded Size Range

New Collection Provides Stylish, Supportive Bras to More Women in the Brand’s Largest Size Range Offering Ever

Olga Flirty (PRNewsFoto/PVH Corp.)

Olga, a subsidiary company of PVH Corp. and a leading intimate apparel brand for curvy and fuller-busted women, introduces OlgaFlirty, a collection of bras and panties featuring sexy details like lace and plunging necklines. The collection includes four bra styles – a balconette, deep plunge, deep plunge with lace and an unlined underwire – along with a coordinating panty.

Olga Flirty Deep Plunge (PRNewsFoto/PVH Corp.)

Olga Flirty Unlined Underwire (PRNewsFoto/PVH Corp.)

Bras are available in sizes up to 46 bands and G and H cups, and panties are available up to size 4XL, marking the largest size range offering ever under the brand.

Olga Flirty Balconette (PRNewsFoto/PVH Corp.)

Olga Flirty Deep Plunge with Lace (PRNewsFoto/PVH Corp.)

Four Seasons Resort Maui Invites Guests to Dream Bigger with Highly Customizable Unforgettable Experiences

New Exclusive Series Connects Guests to the Best of Maui and Beyond, With Personalization Top of Mind.

Responding to the ever-increasing demand for personalized experiential travel, Four Seasons Resort Maui has just announced the Unforgettable Experiences collection. Each experience was born out of the creativity of the Resort’s Guest Experience and Concierge teams, who have been tailor-making experiences like these for discerning guests for years. The collection of Unforgettable Experiences serves as starter ideas for the next guest seeking an out-of-the-box and over-the-top way to experience the island.

“Our staff is comprised of the most seasoned, resourceful hospitality experts in Hawaii,” says General Manager of the luxury resort on Maui, Jean Claude Wietzel. “At a time when the vast majority of resorts are outsourcing their concierge services to third-party vendors, our in-house concierge team remains dedicated to delivering incredible Maui experiences for our discerning guests.”

Here are the Unforgettable Experiences available for customization so far:

• Kona Coffee Helicopter Tour – Kona coffee has earned the respect of coffee aficionados worldwide. Four Seasons Maui invites guests to immerse themselves in this uniquely Hawaiian culture of coffee by traveling to Maui’s neighbor island via private Paradise Helicopters charter, where they will land on a Big Island coffee estate for an exclusive owner-led farm-to-cup tour and brunch. The flight back is half the fun, as guests soar above active lava flows and majestic sea cliffs.

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• Maui Photo Adventure—Four Seasons Maui guests travel deeper alongside professional fine art photographer Daniel Sullivan.  Sullivan, who specializes in documenting vanishing cultures, has recently published a photo book that immortalizes Maui’s legendary King’s Highway. Guests will find themselves far off the beaten path, as Sullivan shares not only his knowledge of the intricate culture and landscape of Maui, but photography tips along the way, in this tour perfectly suited for photography novices and professionals alike.
  

  The award-winning Serenity Pool at The Four Seasons Resort Maui.

• Serenity Pool After Hours – Among the World’s Best Hotel Pools reported by Condé Nast Traveler and one of Robb Report’s Best of the Best resort swimming pools, the Serenity Pool is now available for guests seeking a truly enchanted evening. As fire pits blaze and lights from neighboring islands twinkle in the distance, the Resort’s most coveted spot becomes a private oasis after nightfall. The night is highly customizable, starting with personally prepared multi-course dinner by Executive Chef Craig Dryhurst created for guests via private consultation.
  

  Serenity Pool After Hours

• Whale Watch Photo Excursion (seasonal: December-May) – Join Four Seasons Resort Maui artists-in-residence, underwater photography duo Dan and John Cesere, on an incomparable whale watching excursion. The Cesere Brothers are two of Maui’s leading whale experts, as they are part of the Keiki Kohola humpback whale research team that is dedicated to preserving Maui’s waters. Whether guests want to dive into the tricks of underwater photography or just learn from the brothers aboard, the Maui whale watching photo adventure will be one-of-a-kind. (Tours do not include underwater photography of humpback whales, but focus on Maui’s other plentiful and vibrant marine life.)

“This is just the beginning,” explains Guest Experience Manager Shermaine Rodrigues, who manages the Resort’s top-tiered suite guests. “Building personalized Unforgettable Experiences has become part of our day-to-day here—for my team and the Concierge team.  It’s gratifying to be able to show off a part of the island or the Resort in a way that resonates with each guest individually.”

To customize an Unforgettable Experience in Maui, contact the Resort’s on-site concierge team.

– All Images Provided by The Four Seasons Resort Maui

The Philadelphia Museum of Art to Present Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910-1950, Most Comprehensive Exhibition of Mexican Modern Art in the United States in 70 Years

All Images provided by The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Paint the Revolution Will Travel to the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, in 2017.

Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910-1950 is co-organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City.

Optic Parable, 1931, by Manuel Álvarez Bravo (Philadelphia Museum of Art: 125th Anniversary Acquisition. The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, © Colette Urbajte/Asosciacion Manuel Alvarez Bravo

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA 19130, (215) 763-8100), in partnership with the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, will present a landmark exhibition that takes a new and long overdue look at an extraordinary moment in the history of Mexican art. Paint the Revolution: Mexican Modernism, 1910-1950 (October 25, 2016–January 6, 2017, Location: Dorrance Special Exhibition Galleries, Philadelphia Museum of Art) will explore the rich and fascinating story of a period of remarkable change. It will be the most comprehensive exhibition of Mexican modernism to be seen in the United States in more than seven decades and will feature an extraordinary range of images, from portable murals and large and small paintings to prints and photographs, books and broadsheets. In this country, Paint the Revolution, will be seen only in Philadelphia before traveling to Mexico City in 2017.

Self-Portrait on the Border Line Between Mexico and the United States, 1932, by Frida Kahlo (Colección Maria y Manuel Reyero, New York) © Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Museum’s rich collections of Mexican art have served as the inspiration for Paint the Revolution.T he Museum’s holdings in this field are among the most important in the United States. They range from pre-Columbian sculptures to colonial-era paintings and ceramics and to such twentieth-century masterpieces as Self-Portrait with Popocatépetl (1928) by Dr. Atl, Three Nudes (1930) by Julio Castellanos, Bicycle Race (1938) by Antonio Ruiz, War (1939) by David Alfaro Siqueiros, The Mad Dog (1943) by Rufino Tamayo, and two portable frescoes – Liberation of the Peon and Sugar Cane (both from 1931) – by Diego Rivera. The Museum also houses a significant number of works on paper from this period, including drawings and photographs as well as an extensive collection of prints, many of which were featured in the 2006 exhibition Mexico and Modern Printmaking: A Revolution in the Graphic Arts, 1920 to 1950.

Homage to the Indian Race, 1952, by Rufino Tamayo (Acervo CONACULTA–INBA, Museo de Arte Moderno)

The exhibition takes its title from an essay called “Paint the Revolution” by the American novelist John Dos Passos who traveled to Mexico City in 1926-27 and witnessed the murals created by Diego Rivera that celebrate the ideals of the Mexican Revolution. In order to represent Mexican muralism and share with visitors masterpieces by Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros, the exhibition will present in digital form three important murals created by these three artists—often called los tres grandes (the three great ones)—in Mexico and the United States.

This exhibition is curated by a team of specialists including Matthew Affron, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art; Mark A. Castro, Project Assistant Curator, European Painting, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Dafne Cruz Porchini, Postdoctoral Researcher, Colegio de México, Mexico City; and Renato González Mello, Director of the Institute for Aesthetic Investigation, National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Barricade, 1931, by José Clemente Orozco (Museum of Modern Art, New York: Given anonymously, 468.1937) © José Clemente Orozco/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SOMAAP, Mexico

Matthew Affron stated: “Paint the Revolution will touch on all aspects of modern art in Mexico. Though the mural painting tradition remains that country’s best-known contribution to modernism in the visual arts, it is part of a much broader story. Artists were innovating in every possible medium, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, and photography. Their work cut across all classifications, from the epic to the lyric. Visitors to the exhibition will find many surprises.”

Paint the Revolution spans four momentous decades. It will begin by surveying modern art in Mexico City during the revolutionary decade of the 1910s, clearly demonstrating that while many artists engaged with international avant-garde styles, such as Impressionism, Symbolism, and Cubism, they also infused their work with facets of ancient and modern Mexican culture. The exhibition will also explore the artistic experimentation and social idealism of the early post-Revolutionary period, when painters rallied to support the government’s program of national reconstruction and there was growing international recognition of Mexico’s cultural importance. It will also consider the principal avant-garde groups—such as the Stridentists and the Contemporaries—active in Mexico City during this period who pursued alternative directions in post-revolutionary culture, turning away from folkloric and historical subjects and focusing on themes of modern urban life.

The Epic of American Civilization (detail), 1932–34, by José Clemente Orozco (Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College: Commissioned by the Trustees of Dartmouth College), © Jose Clemente Orozco/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SOMAAP, Mexico City

Mexico City, 1949, by Juan O’Gorman (Acervo CONACULTA–INBA, Museo de Arte Moderno), © Juan O’Gorman/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SOMAAP, Mexico City

In the 1920s and 1930s the development of a vibrant support network and a robust market for modern art in the United States drew Mexican artists northward. The exhibition will follow a number of Mexican painters during their American sojourns, highlighting images with both Mexican and U.S. themes, and focusing on works that dramatized the encounter between south and north, between Hispano- and Anglo-America. Paint the Revolution will conclude with the renewal of socially and politically oriented art in Mexico from the mid-1930s through the aftermath of the Second World War.