Thursday, April 8, 2010

This spring, Philadelphia is hosting Philagrafika 2010, a city-wide festival in about 80 museums and galleries throughout the city and region, celebrating the printed image through the work of 300 internationally acclaimed artists* from around the world.  The theme of the festival is “The Graphic Unconscious.”        Featured artists include Americans Eric Avery, Enrique Chagoya, Kiki Smith, Swoon, and many others, as well as numerous artists from around the world, including Christiane Baumgartner (Germany), Orit Hofshi (Israel), Pepon Osorio (Puerto Rico and U.S.A.), Superflex (Denmark), and Qui Zhijie (China).

On April 8, a day-trip organized by the Zimmerli Art Museum will visit several different exhibits in this unusual event.  The day will begin with a docent-led tour of Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Then the group will view that museum’s The Graphic Unconscious exhibition. After lunch at the museum, the group will travel to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts to have a tour of its contribution to Philagrafika 2010.  The day will conclude at The Print Center, a non-profit institution created to promote the appreciation of prints.  The Zimmerli’s Curator of Prints and Drawings and Director of the Morse Research Center for Graphic Arts, will be on our tour to share her expertise on Picasso and prints.  It will be a special experience to first view Picasso’s work and other cutting-edge art of his day, and then compare them with today’s new prints, which push the boundaries of what is now possible in the printmaking media.    If you are interested in obtaining more information about the trip, please visit http://www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu/events/index.php?id=21 or call 732.932.7237  x611 to request the trip flyer.