Art exhibitions currently on show at Central Florida museums

I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of high-quality exhibitions on display within a two-hour radius of downtown Orlando. The exhibitions cover a wide variety of genres, topics, media and styles. In this post I highlight the ones that I have visited.

The Ringling -- Knights (February 3 - April 21, 2019)
The Ringling's (Sarasota, FL) Knights exhibition features Medieval and Renaissance arms and armor on loan from the collection of Florence's Museo Stibbert. According to the Museum, "... this extraordinary exhibition reveals the figure of the European knight in the middle ages and Renaissance through over 100 exquisite objects, including full suits of armor, helmets, swords, and other weaponry. The exhibition explores the function, history and craftsmanship of these exquisite objects, focusing on themes of love and war, jousts and tournaments, and the 19th-century revival of interest in medieval knighthood."

Mounted figure with Equestrian Barding suit of
armor

This is a stunning exhibit which is somewhat softened by the presence of nine paintings, none of which were previously familiar to me. Subsequent to attending the exhibit I have explored two of those paintings: Ottavio Amigoni's Apparition of Saints Faustinus and Jovita in the Defense of Brescia and Commemoration of the Joust of the Saracen of February 25, 1634.

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens -- Gauguin: Voyage to Paradise (February 10 - June 30, 2019)
I visited this exhibition before going over to the Ringling to see the Knights exhibit. It sounded idyllic: an exhibition of selected Gauguin works in a botanical gardens nestled on the banks of  Sarasota Bay. The setting is absolutely wonderful but the exhibition did not live up to my expectations. There just was not enough material on exhibit to make the trip worth the effort. The exhibition was short and shallow. Visit this if you are in the area.

Orlando Museum of Art -- Louis Dewis: A Belgian Post-Impressionist (January 25 - May 5, 2019)
Coming, as I do, from the world of wine, I am very familiar with the resurrection story wherein a formerly respected indigenous grape variety had fallen into obscurity (through disuse) and is rescued from near-extinction by the timely intervention of an intrepid "savior." Such is the case for Louis Dewis in the art world, a story told in a current Orlando Museum of Art exhibition titled Louis Dewis: A Belgian Post-Impressionist. According to the museum, this exhibit "places Dewis's work in historical context and seeks to reestablish his role in the story of 20th-century French and Belgian art."

Louis Dewis at Work

This is a meaningful exhibition for the Orlando Museum of Art. This is an important story in terms of the quality of the works, the period in which they were produced, and the role that the museum is playing in the rollout. All in all the exhibition was well curated and the story flowed. I wrote about this exhibition here.

Tampa Museum of Art -- Oswaldo Vigas: Transformations (January 31, 2019 - May 27, 2019) 
The Tampa Museum exhibition Oswaldo Vigas Transformations is part of a broader campaign to introduce the works of the Venezuelan artist to an audience beyond his native country and the Latin American arts community. The campaign is spearheaded by a foundation formed by the artist's son and widow for that express purpose.

Oswaldo Vigas was born in 1923 in Valencia, Venezuela, the son of a local doctor. He began painting at the age of 12 but entered Central University of Venezuela to study Pediatrics. His love of art won out, however, and he began to take his calling more seriously. He won the Venezuelan Fine Arts Prize in 1952 and utilized the ticket that was a part of the prize to travel to Paris and enroll in the prestigious École des Beaux Arts.

Oswaldo Vigas is world-class artist with a stellar body of work whose only sin is that he plied his trade in the Southern Hemisphere, beyond the gaze of the art cognoscenti. He painted across a number of styles but I was especially drawn to the fluidity, inventiveness, innovativeness, and color combinations of his figurative work which seemed less hemmed-in and monochromatic than his more abstract pieces.

Polk Museum of Art -- Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist (Deecember 22 - March 24, 2019)
This exhibition is curated from a private collection and "seeks to shed light not only on the artists favorite themes but also on the complex man himself and the artists he called his friends. Works on paper by Degas' closest friends are included in the exhibition.

This is a dense exhibit and may require a number of visits to cover in its entirety. The works are small and numerous and there is a wealth of detailed notes accompanying each item. I have studied only 1/4 of the items to date.
No photography is allowed at this exhibition. Also, this is the only exhibition covered herein where entry is free.

The Dali -- Magritte and Dali (December 15 - May 19, 2019)
This is a mind-blowing exhibition of 30 or so of the works of these two leading practitioners of their genre. Each object requires careful contemplation in order to ensure that one has teased out every permutation and perturbation of the effort; and then you continue looking back over your shoulder.

In addition to the items on display, the user can interact with with a "cloud room" as well take pictures of themselves in a surrealist landscape. Enjoyed this thoroughly.

Museum of Art - Deland -- Masterpieces of African American Art (January 20 - March 17, 2019)

According to the museum, "A world-class exhibition of more than 85 pieces on view including works from Faith Ringgold, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Purvis Young." The exhibition draws from a collection titled African American Art: We too Dream America and a selection from the museum's permanent collection. The quilts from Faith Ringgold are the mainstays of the exhibition but there are a number of other fine pieces on display.

Faith Ringgold quilts on display at Museum of Art - Deland

The museum staff here is wonderful and helpful and enthusiastic but the exhibition would have been better served by more of a cohesive storyline and more information on the pieces on display. I applaud the museum for bringing this show into town.

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