A blog by staff and others about the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
A Picasso-inspired musical performance
April 7, 2011
The Richmond Symphony is offering a free concert in April 14 at 7 p.m. in the Cochrane atrium. The program celebrates the wealth of creative activity that marked Paris in the early 20th century. Using the Picasso exhibition as the beginning of a colorful journey, the Symphony will perform music by composers whose works were…
James River Film Festival this week at VMFA
April 5, 2011
It started 18 years ago as the brainchild of Mike Jones, VCU film teacher and former owner of the legendary Biograph Theater here in Richmond. It was conceived as a non-profit showcase for very significant film-related events drawn primarily from the world of independent and avant garde cinema, and has certainly lived up to the…
Septimius Sevrus film nominated for award
April 5, 2011
In 1967 the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts acquired a monumental statue of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus. The statue had once belonged to the famous 17th-century Italian collector Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564–1637), who displayed it with his extensive collection of ancient art. But in the late 1960s, scholars questioned whether any or all of the…
April 1, 2011
Images of cats are plentifully in evidence in VMFA’s exhibition: A Celebration of Print: 500 years of Graphic Art from the Frank Raysor Collection. The exhibition runs until May 22nd in the Mellon Focus Galleries. Admission to the exhibition is free. Here are three of my favorite cats from the show: Cornelis de Visscher…
Ram fever, available for purchase at VMFA
March 29, 2011
You asked and we heard! In honor of our mighty VCU Rams, the VMFA shop has several collectable items for sale for those with Ram Fever, each uniquely appropriate to the museum’s collection and to Virginia. Marvel at this Faberge-inspired ram locket with ram charm. Every Imperial egg in VMFA’s collection has a surprise inside,…
The Ides of March
March 15, 2011
“Beware the Ides of March,” so says the soothsayer in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Little did visitors to the VMFA this morning realize that it was they who needed to beware. Innocently coming to the museum, perhaps for a bit of Ife, perhaps for a bit of Picasso, perhaps just to enjoy our permanent galleries (for…
New Pedestals in the Classical Gallery
March 8, 2011
Three new pedestals have magically appeared in the Classical Art Gallery, each holding magnificent examples of Greek art. Together with a case featuring Geometric and Archaic art, these pedestals give the gallery a chronological spine in the form of a survey of Greek pottery from the 8th through the 4th centuries BCE. The first…
Septimius Severus
March 7, 2011
There is a very interesting story behind Septimius Severus—both the man himself and the statue of him at VMFA. What some people don’t know is that this Roman emperor was born in Lepcis Magna, North Africa, and so was sometimes referred to as the “African Emperor.” When Severus was 18, he moved to Rome to…
Prints, Literacy, and Freedom
March 4, 2011
As we continue to explore selected works from the VMFA’s exhibition A Celebration of Print: 500 Years of Graphic Art from the Frank Raysor Collection, the “democracy” of the print medium becomes apparent. As something becomes cheaper and more widely available, more people will see it and own it. Prints often allowed a broader demographic…
Film Director and Legendary Movie Star to Appear
February 28, 2011
At this Friday Films, March 4, 2011, VMFA will present film director Tim Reid with his guest Richard Roundtree showing Reid’s 1996 motion picture directorial debut, Once Upon a Time…When We Were Colored, in which Roundtree plays the sturdy ice man, Cleve. Afterwards they will be joined by Tim’s lovely wife, actress Daphne Maxwell Reid,…