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TBO > Entertainment > Arts
Art For Everyone
Collection of the Museum of Florida Art
Anna Tomczak (American, b. 1948) Devil’s Backbone, II, 2000 Polaroid Image Transfer, 20 x 24 in. photograph
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Published: January 14, 2009
A pro football player from 1921, a leafy stem caressing a woman's back, three very placid dogs fishing from a rowboat, a medieval knight on horseback, a towel-wrapped neck and head hanging out of a bathtub: These are just some of the images to be found at four very different museum exhibits opening this month around Tampa Bay.
There's also a bash to celebrate the opening of the new, $51.5 million Tampa Bay History Center in the Channel District.
Running through March 7 at the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum is the first Tampa exhibit by Austrian artist Werner Reiterer.
Called "Raw Loop," the exhibit shows Reiterer's imaginative take on the world and life with his drawings, objects and installations of everyday items put together in anything but everyday ways. It can shock and amuse simultaneously.
Take for instance the piece, "I thought it's an idea…". There's a bathtub with a head lolling out of one end of it; shoes and clothes are scattered on the floor. It is up to the viewer to put this together with the title.
Although the artist has been widely exhibited in Europe since 1996, his American exposure is limited and relatively recent.
Contemporary Art Museum is at 4202 E. Fowler Ave. on the University of South Florida Campus. Admission is free, but it costs $4 for parking on campus. For information, call (813) 974-4133 or visit www.cam.usf
.edu.
St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts digs into the past for an exhibit of 100 master prints by the 15th and 16th century artist Albrecht Durer, a towering figure in the art world credited with developing printmaking and moving the art of engraving forward. His woodcuts are considered wonders of workmanship.
Called "Art in Transition," the exhibit, which opens Saturday, draws from the Hessian State Museum collection in Darmstadt, Germany. Because of the fragile nature of the prints, they rarely leave home. In fact, the fine arts museum is one of only three stops in the United States for the traveling collection and the only stop in Florida.
Highlighting the exhibit are famous engravings, including "Adam and Eve" (1504), "Melancholia I" (1514), "St. Jerome in His Study" (1514) and "The Knight, Death, and the Devil." (1513). Famous woodcuts to be seen are "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1498) and "The Rhinoceros" (1515).
In size and scope it is an impressive collection and one not to be seen again in this area for a long time. It runs through April 12.
MFA is at 255 Beach Drive N.E. in St. Petersburg. Admission is free for members, $12 or less depending on age for nonmembers. Call (727) 896-2667 for hours and information, or visit www.fine-arts.org.
The Tampa Bay History Center opens to the public on Saturday with host of activities, including historical re-enactments, music, flamenco dancers, and appearances by members of local sports teams. The new museum, which is 60,000 square feet, will house 10 different exhibits, including "Icons of Tampa Bay," which showcases 14 icons representing the area, including a Gasparilla ship and a Tampa streetcar. Other exhibits focus on the first European explorers to the area, American Indians, cattle drives and the development of the cigar industry.
One of the featured exhibits focuses on the Tocobaga and Calusa tribes, who first resided in Central and South Florida more than 12,000 years ago. Called "Florida's First People," the exhibit features original and replica artifacts from the Paleoindian Period (12000 B.C.-6000 B.C.) through the Mississippian Period (1000 A.D.-1600 A.D.).
The new museum is located in the Channel District, adjacent to the Cotanchobee-Fort Brooke Park. Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7 for children (4 to 12 years old). Call (813) 228-0097 for information.
The Leepa-Ratner Museum of Art opens two photography exhibits Saturday that provide two different focuses on the art of Polaroid processing.
In "It's A Dog's Life," internationally known artist William Wegman creates humor and drama in 29 large-format Polaroid photographs of his famous Weimaraner dogs in human poses and situations, created from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s.
Wegman began doing dog portraits with his dog, Man Ray, who claimed the pokerface mug that adapted so well to human interpretations. It eventually became known and loved the world over.
In "Sanctuary," Florida-based artist Anna Tomczak presents a retrospective of the past 40 years that includes early hand-painted gelatin silver prints along with large-format Polaroid image transfers.
On her Web site, Tomczak says she is an avid collector of what she calls "iconic treasures." Her works reflect that passion in that they are a collection of figures, flora and found objects assembled into a careful, cohesive whole.
Both exhibits run through April 12.
The Leepa-Ratner Museum is at 600 Klosterman Road on the Tarpon Springs campus of St. Petersburg College.
For information and hours, call (727) 712-5762 or visit www.spcollege.edu/museum.
Opening Thursday just in time for Super Bowl mania is an exhibit of football nostalgia that is easy on the eyes and will put even the most uninterested viewer into a mood to toss the pigskin around the gridiron. Called "NFL History from Getty Images," it's a photographic journey through time and it's at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in downtown Tampa through Feb. 28.
The exhibit consists of 32 black-and-white or color images of some of the icons and the more memorable moments in football over a wide range of years.
"I didn't want just football pictures for football pictures," executive director Joanne Milani said. "I wanted something that people would not ordinarily see on display. I wanted something that took you through the history of football, so you could see how it has evolved."
Highlights of the show include a 1921 picture of Jim Thorpe posing in full football regalia of the times; a picture of Johnny Unitas of the Baltimore Colts about to throw a pass in sudden death overtime in a game [which the Colts won] in 1958; a 1966 photo of the first National Football League Commissioner, Pete Rozelle; a 1981 photo of Jack Lambert of the Pittsburgh Stealers with his front teeth knocked out; and a shot from last year's Super Bowl.
The museum is at 200 N. Tampa St. in downtown Tampa. Call (813) 221-2222 for hours and information.
Correspondent Esther Hammer can be reached at (813) 259-7662 or ehammer@tampatrib.com.
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