The Cleveland Museum of Art offers a great escape from the doldrums of winter

Winter is the best time to visit the Cleveland Art Museum. You can spend an entire day with the family without the guilt of undone yard work plus break the spell of winter at the same time. Through February and March, the Art Gallery offers a wide array of exhibitions, special events and movies that will entertain and intrigue the entire family. Plan an outing soon with your family. If you have not visited the museum in some time, you are in for some wonderful surprises.

Exhibitions

British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art (New)
Sunday, February 10, 2013 to Sunday, May 26, 2013
Free
Although renowned for its collection of Italian and French drawings, the Cleveland Museum of Art also has an extensive collection of British Drawings that includes works by such well known artists as Thomas Gainsborough, William Blake, J. M. W. Turner and Edward Burne-Jones.

Location: The Cleveland Museum of Art

41.51118850708 ; -81.612838745117

Recent acquisitions have been added to this extensive collection and include a highly finished wash drawing exemplary of John Flaxman's neoclassical style, an 18th-century double-portrait in pastel by Daniel Gardner and a watercolor in pristine condition describing the Surrey countryside at sunset by Samuel Palmer.

Supplementing this inaugeral exhibition of 50 works will be a small group of loans from private collections with works from the 18th century through the Edwardian period and will be accompanied by a collection catalogue.

The Caporali Missal
A Masterpiece of Renaissance Illumination (New)
Sunday, February 17, 2013 to Sunday, June 2, 2013
Free
The center piece of this collection is an illuminated missal (or service book for the priest at the altar) that was made for the Franciscan community in the town of Montone, near Perugia in 1469. The work was that of two artist brothers, Bartolomeo and Giapeco Caporali who were responsible for the missal’s decoration. The piece was acquired by the museum in 2006 and is being presented with various other works (including panel paintings and manuscripts) of the two brothers for the first time in an effort to highlight their careers and their relationship with the Franciscans of Montone.

Added to the exhibit will be liturgical objects such as vestments, a chalice and a processional cross that will place the manuscript in liturgical, cultural and art historical contexts. Many of these works, lent by museums and churches in Umbria, are displayed in the U.S. for the first time.

The Last Days of Pompeii
Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection (New)
Sunday, February 24, 2013 to Sunday, July 7, 2013
Free
In the over 300 years since the discovery of Pompeii and the other ancient roman cities destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in ad79 much has been documented and written about the daily life experience of the inhabitants whose lives were instantly frozen in time.

There is however, another side of the Pompeii story. It has also served as an inspiration to such notable modern artists such as Piranesi, Ingres, Alma-Tadema, Duchamp, Rothko and Warhol who have embraced the cities with contemporary views captured in diverse media. This international loan exhibition is co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

American Vesuvius
The Aftermath of Mount St. Helens by Frank Gohlke and Emmet Gowin
Now through June 2, 2013 (Extended)
Free
It was a cataclysmic volcanic eruption of enormous proportions that caused an entire side of a mountain to slide away and forests for miles around to be flattened by the force of the explosion. The resulting plume of dust caused climatic changes that could be felt even years later.

The exhibition brings together two photographers who although working independently have given us an aerial history of the horrific aftermath of this prominent seismographic event and the gradual healing process that nature has used to restore the land.

Emmet Gowin's collection of images were all taken in 1981while Frank Gohlke returned to the region numerous times between 1981 and 1990 to document the gradual rebirth of the land as it fought to reestablish itself through the thick layer of ash. Together, their collections of photographs give a complete document of the aftermath of Mount St. Helen.

Fred Wilson
Now through May 5, 2013
Free
Fred Wilson visualizes himself as a political activist first and an artist second. With this combination he has allowed himself the freedom to ask one question, “How is it possible to pose critical questions about museum practices within a museum itself?” Walking a creative tightrope, Fred has managed to collaborate with museums and cultural institutions to install various site-specific art interventions.

By employing the vocabularies, concepts and methods of those same institutions, Wilson is able to undermine the discourse-determining status of those same venues that house his works.

Four of Wilson’s works will be on display in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s East Wing Glass Box Gallery that give a representative sampling of his controversial practice.

Picasso and the Mysteries of Life
La Vie
Now through April 21, 2013
Free
Thought to be the high water mark of Picasso’s Blue Period, “La Vie” strives to understand Picasso’s working methods that led to this masterpiece. It is accompanied by a groundbreaking book that acts as a focal point for examining the culture surrounding the modernist culture of the 19th and 20th centuries. By reexamining the painting in preciously unconsidered historical context, it reveals more information on the creative process of the 20th century’s most well known and influential artist.

Studio Glass in Focus
Dialogue and Innovation
Now through April 14, 2013
Free
Studio Glass first appeared as an art form in Toledo, Ohio in 1962. From these early pioneers of the art to the present day artistic innovators, this exhibit explores the evolution of this movement. Highlighting the dialog between teachers and students and the intercourse between the two, this exhibit shows the changes that have been forged through time and the development of modern techniques now being used by the artists of today.

Special Events

Lectures/Gallery Talks

The Artist and the Fatal Woman
Deconstructing Picasso's La Vie
Friday, February 15, 2013, 7:00 p.m.
Free
Art historian John Richardson has observed that the Picasso masterpiece "has given rise to more mystification that any other early work by the artist."

Join curatorial research assistant, Galina Olmsted as she discusses the artistic process used to produce this enigmatic work as well as Picasso’s dabbling in bohemian otherness and the cult of suicide as well as the wider context of fatal women’s representation in modern art.

Slaves, Sluts, and Saints
The Imaginary Women of Pompeii
Sunday, February 24, 2013, 2:00 p.m.
Over the course of years, elaborate explanations have evolved concerning the various victims of Pompeii discovered in the doomed city. Join Dr. Victoria C. Gardner Coates as she examines three such women of imagination. From the self-sacrificing slave Nydia found in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s book, “The Last Days of Pompeii” to Arria Marcella, the lusty pagan temptress of Theophile Gautier’s novel of the same name to lastly, the virtuous and lovely Gradiva, the focus of Wilhelm Jensen’s “Gradiva, A Pompeian Fantasy”.

Admission: $12; $9 to CMA members. Call the Ticket Center at (216) 421-7350 to purchase tickets.

The Caporali Missal
A Masterpiece of Renaissance Illumination
Sunday, March 3, 2:00 p.m.
Free
Taken to examination will be the manuscript missal that was created for the Franciscan community of Montone in Italy’s Umbria region by the Caporali brothers and is the focal point of the exhibit. Join Stephen Fliegel (Curator of Medieval Art as he lectures on the impressive decoration as well as the use of this service book for the alter. Presented in partnership with Cleveland State University.

Workshop/Demonstration

Family Game Night
Friday, February 22, 2013, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
This is gaming, museum style. Bring the entire family for new variations on old favorites such as Twister, Bingo, Scavenger Hunt and Puzzles. This eveing is designed for all age levels. Provenance Café will offer family friendly snacks for those who work up an appetite.

Admission: $12 per family; $10 to CMA members Register through the Ticket Center- 216-421-7350

Music and Performing Arts

Music in the Galleries
First Wednesdays, 6:00 p.m., now through May 2013
Free
Cleveland is blessed with a tremendous amount of talented students and teachers. With this in mind, the Cleveland Museum of Art has initiated a program highlighting these various local talents. String quartets, small ensembles and keyboardists from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Case Western Reserve early music programs will be on hand to perform various works in matinee performances. Programs to be announced week of performance: check the museum’s Facebook page, Twitter, and web site for details.

The Idan Raichel Project
Saturday, February 16, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Voted Israel’s musician of the decade, Idan Raichel fuses Middle Eastern instruments with electronics to combine traditional Jewish music with that of West Africa, Latin America and India. Combining lyrics of Hebrew with Arabic, Amharic, Swahili, Spanish and Creole Portuguese his works truly are examples of pure world music. Following the success of his debut album, Idan appears with his seven member ensemble in their Cleveland debut acoustical performance. In partnership with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

Tickets $34–$54

Victoire
Friday, February 22, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Founded by composer/keyboardist Missy Mazzoli, the all female group is made up of Olivia De Prato (violin), Eileen Mack (clarinet), Lorna Krier (keyboards) and Eleonore Oppenheim (double bass). Focusing on dreamy post-rock, quirky minimalism and rich romanticism music, this ensemble of winds, strings, keyboards and lo-fi electronics pushes the boundaries of ensemble music.

Mazzoli’s collection of compositions give a fresh look as to where chamber music is headed in the 21st century.

Tickets $24–$39

Theater Ninjas at the Cleveland Museum of Art
Friday, March 1, 2013, 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 7:00 p.m.
Friday, April 12, 2013, 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 28, 2013, 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013, 7:00 p.m.
Theatre Ninjas will be presenting their original performance “The Excavation” which celebrates the life, death and re-birth of Pompeii in popular culture. The performance will take place in the Ames Family Atrium which allows ample room for the sprawling, wide open adventure that theatre Ninjas has been known for.

Using site-specific performance and interactive storytelling, Theatre Ninjas will explore the comic and tragic legacy of Pompeii. Theatre Ninjas will also be included into the Pompeii exhibition during special “Ninja Days” in March, April and May. This exciting collaboration between the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland-based Theater Ninjas brings together performance and the visual arts in a one-of-a-kind experience filled with humor, pathos and catastrophic volcanic eruptions.

The Excavation opens during MIX: Apocalypse, the museum’s monthly First Friday event series. MIX ticket required for March 1 performance. All subsequent performances are free.

Films

Neighboring Sounds
Wednesday, February 13, 6:30 p.m.
An affluent group of residents hire a private security firm in response to a wave of crimes in their neighborhood, but the result is more tension towards the security people than the criminals. Directed by Kleber Mendonca Filho and filmed in Brazil. Cleveland premiere.

Brazil, 2012, color/b&w, subtitles, video, 131 min.