On Tuesday, December 1, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art Association will sponsor a one-day trip to the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, to tour the exhibition From The Private Collections of Texas:  European Art, Ancient to Modern and to view The Torment of Saint Anthony, the first known painting by Michelangelo.  In addition, the Kimbell’s new director, Dr. Eric McCauley Lee, former director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, will join us for lunch.  The deadline for reservations is Monday, November 9, 2009.
 
We will leave Norman at 7:45 a.m. after boarding the bus at the south end of the Hobby Lobby parking lot on West Main Street and 24th Avenue, N.W.  There will an Oklahoma City bus departing at 7:15 a.m. from the north side of the Science Museum (formerly the Omniplex) parking lot at M.L. King Blvd. and N.E. 52nd Street.  Orange juice and donuts will be served on the way to Fort Worth.  There will be a rest stop both going down and on the return trip.  We will arrive in Fort Worth around 11:00 a.m.  Lunch will be at Joe T. Garcia’s Restaurant, a Fort Worth tradition known for its beautiful patio gardens and superb menu.  Included in the cost of the tour, lunch will be an enchilada dinner with cheese nachos, cheese enchiladas, rice, beans, beef tacos, guacamole, corn tortillas, chips, hot sauce, iced
tea or coffee and a praline for dessert.  Following lunch we will visit the Kimbell Art Museum for several hours before beginning the trip back to Oklahoma around 3:00 p.m.  We will have a rest stop in Gainesville, returning to Norman by
approximately 7:00 p.m. and to Oklahoma City by 7:30 p.m.
 
From the Private Collections of Texas:  European Art, Ancient to Modern surveys the history of private art collecting in Texas from the oil boom days of Spindletop to the present day, and tells the stories of the men and women in the state who have formed significant collections of European paintings and sculpture of the highest discernment—collections
that might seem more at home abroad rather than in Texas.  Reflecting the Kimbell’s own collecting areas, the 100 works in the exhibition will focus on the art of Europe and the ancient Mediterranean from about 700 B.C. to around 1950.  More than 40 collectors will  be represented, and among the artists to be featured are Guido Reni, Guercino, Rembrandt van Rijn, Thomas Gainsborough, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van
Gogh, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Piet Mondrian.  About half of the works hang in private residences, unknown to the public and little known even to specialists.  The other half of the works were collected privately in Texas and later donated to museums.  These works are much better known, although they are rarely contemplated in the context of private collecting.  Who brought them to Texas, and how did this person originally display them?  The exhibition will lift a curtain on private artistic enthusiasms and, using historic photographs, show how collectors have lived with
their art.  Names include collectors such as John and Dominique de Menil of Houston, Michael L. Rosenberg of Dallas, James and Lillian Clark of Dallas, Kay and Velma Kimbell of the Kimbell Art Museum, Raymond and Patsy Nasher of the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, and Marion Koogler McNay of the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio.  The exhibition will pay tribute to these collectors by displaying representative selections from their original collections.    Richard R. Brettell and C.D. Dickerson, co-curators of the exhibition, have prepared a scholarly catalogue published by Yale University Press. 
 
Michelangelo’s First Painting: The Torment of Saint Anthony is believed to have been painted in 1487-88 and is described by Michelangelo’s earliest biographers.  Michelangelo was 12 or 13 years old at the time he painted the wooden panel using egg tempera and oil.  The Kimbell’s new acquisition is also the first painting by Michelangelo to enter an American collection.  One other painting is in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, and two others are in London’s National Gallery.  These four are the only known easel paintings generally regarded as having come from Michelangelo.  Prominent art critics have reviewed the painting plus recent articles in the New York Times and The
New Yorker magazine have added to the excitement of the Michelangelo acquisition.  This past summer, The Torment of Saint Anthony was on special loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where over 160,000 people saw it.  Over 5,580 people came to see it on opening day in Fort Worth.  The Kimbell has not disclosed what it paid for the panel.                                                 
 
The painting is of Saint Anthony the Great, a 4th-century Egyptian hermit-saint who levitated into the air and was attacked by demons, whose torments he resisted.  Michelangelo painted the saint from an engraving by the 15th-century German master Martin Schongauer.   Although a small panel, only about 18 by 13 inches, it figures prominently in proving Michelangelo’s being drawn to painting at an early age, and Benedetto Varchi also saw fit to mention the story of the painting in the eloquent oration he delivered at Michelangelo’s funeral in 1564.   The history of the panel’s whereabouts throughout the years is filled with stories of its owners and its art dealers.  Most recently, the panel was in Great Britain, where a man named Paul Harvey had it until his death in 1948.  His family offered it at auction in 1960 as a work by Michelangelo, but it remained unsold.  Offered again at Sotheby’s in 2008, the question of its authorship was questioned but Adam Williams Fine Art purchased it.  The panel was conserved by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which also researched it and compared it to other Michelangelo paintings.  X-radiography and other tests confirmed that Michelangelo executed the painting.
 
The cost of the tour is $85.00 for Association members, $95.00 for non-members.  The price includes round-trip transportation, snacks, lunch, and exhibition admission fees at the museum.  Please fill out the reservation form below and mail it with your check by the deadline date of Monday, November 9, 2009.  However, our experience suggests early registration since our trips are frequently over-subscribed before the deadline date.   Reservations are not accepted by phone, but if you have any questions, please call Mary Jane Rutherford at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, 325-2297.  Please join us for this special tour.