PHILADELPHIA– The Rosenbach Museum & Library will explore the artistic energy and brashly innovative spirit of Paris in the early 20th century (1910s – 1920s) through several unique programs offered this spring during the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts 2011 (PIFA). In the exhibition Exile Among Expats: James Joyce in Paris, now on display, the museum offers a rare look at the prolific Irish author during his years in Paris. Raving Beauty, an exploration of the life and loves of the controversial writer, socialite, and early openly gay woman Mercedes de Acosta, includes a concert featuring a world premiere composition by Joseph Hallman on April 9th and a companion exhibition featuring letters, photographs, and ephemera relating to cinema and lesbian history opening April 3rd.
PIFA, inspired by the Kimmel Center, features painters, sculptors, writers, dancers, musicians, and artists of all kinds from around the world. The first-ever festival is centered around the theme “Paris: 1910-1920” – one of the world’s most artistically creative places and time periods, infused all art forms with a creative spirit that defined the world’s concept of art throughout the 20th century. For general information about the festival, please call (215) 546-PIFA or visit www.pifa.org.
The Rosenbach Museum & Library is located at 2008-2010 Delancey Place in Philadelphia and is open Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $5 for students and free for children under 5. For more information, please call (215) 732-1600 or visit www.rosenbach.org.
Exile Among Expats: James Joyce in Paris
Wednesday, February 23 – Sunday, August 28, 2011
James Joyce (1882-1941) has been called the greatest 20th-century novelist writing in English. The multimedia exhibition Exile Among Expats: James Joyce in Paris illustrates two entwined stories: James Joyce during his Paris years and Paris during its Joyce years. How did Joyce – an Irish exile, a devoted family man, a sequestered literary genius – influence the cosmopolitan avant-garde of the Left Bank? How did the tastes and trends of interwar Paris surface in the labyrinthine worlds of Joyce’s late work? Why did Joyce come to Paris for a weeklong visit and wind up staying for twenty years? Exile Among Expats addresses these questions and more to demonstrate the debt Joyce owed to Paris and the bounty Paris received in return.
Exhibition highlights include:
- Pages from the manuscript to Ulysses, Joyce’s masterpiece
- Man Ray’s iconic photographic portrait of James Joyce
- Selections from Ezra Pound’s Islands of Paris report in The Dial
- A false dust jacket in which a banned copy of Ulysses was smuggled into the United States.
In addition to the manuscript of Ulysses, the Rosenbach’s Joyce holdings include several pages of proofs, first and early editions of nearly all his published works, portraits of Joyce by artists including Man Ray, and almost 150 photos of locations mentioned in Ulysses. Avid Joyce fans will recall the Rosenbach’s 2001 exhibition, Ulysses in Hand, which traced the origins and publication history of the Ulysses manuscript. The current exhibition will address early critical, literary, and personal responses to Joyce’s masterpiece, as well as looking at the origins of the celebration of the unique literary holiday, Bloomsday. The exhibition is curated by Melanie Micir, Consulting Curator.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Rosenbach will continue to celebrate the Joycean tradition with its 19th Annual Bloomsday, an open air festival featuring dramatic readings from the novel by notable Philadelphians from the steps of the museum, Thursday, June 16 from Noon – 7 p.m. Bloomsday is the day on which Ulysses protagonist Leopold Bloom made his “odyssey” through Dublin. The museum’s Bloomsday celebration, now a Philadelphia tradition, is just one of many Bloomsday events held around the world each year on June 16. Bloomsday drawshundreds of friends, neighbors, Joyce enthusiasts, book-lovers, and curious passersby to Delancey Place to hear dozens of notable Philadelphians bring the novel to life. The event is free and open to the public. Related Bloomsday programs will be announced.
Raving Beauty: A Song Cycle Inspired by the
Life of Mercedes de Acosta
Musical Performance featuring Joseph Hallman, Saturday, April 9 at 2 p.m.
Companion Exhibition, Sunday, April 3 – Sunday, July 31, 2011
With Raving Beauty: A Song Cycle Inspired by the Life of Mercedes de Acosta, the Rosenbach Museum & Library presents an intimate world premiere concert featuring live classical music performed by some of the area’s finest musicians, alongside a companion exhibition.
The Concert
On Saturday, April 9 at 2 p.m. in the salon environment of the Denworth Room, the Rosenbach will present a world premiere composition by internationally-recognized Philadelphia-based composer and instructorJoseph Hallman, Composer-in-Residence to the museum. The Rosenbach commissioned Hallman to create a new work based on the life of controversial writer and socialite Mercedes de Acosta (1893-1968), whose life exemplifies the spirit of Paris in the 1920s. Acosta, the “Raving Beauty”, was a prominent member of gay society in New York and Hollywood, well-known for her romantic relationships with Hollywood’s elite leading ladies.
Since 1998, the Rosenbach has commissioned artists to bring its collections to life in unexpected ways and through a variety of projects. Hallman created the new composition after exploring the Rosenbach’s Acosta collection. A tender song cycle, Hallman’s piece explores Acosta’s relationships with the women in her life, including actress Greta Garbo, dancer Isadora Duncan, and Acosta’s sister, the fashion icon Rita Lydig. Works by Debussy, Takemitsu, and Bax complete the program.
The concert will be performed by the critically-acclaimed Dolce Suono ensemble featuring: flautist and Yamaha Performing Artist Mimi Stillman, Philadelphia Orchestra Assistant Principal Cello Yumi Kendall, and harpist Coline-Marie Orliac, a student at the Curtis Institute of Music. The ensemble will be augmented by soprano Abigail Haynes Lennox.
The Exhibition
The companion exhibition Raving Beauty, on view beginning Sunday, April 3rd in the Rosenbach’s Drawing Room gallery, highlights objects from museum’s Mercedes de Acosta Collection that intrigued and inspired Joseph Hallman during his research at the museum. The exhibition primarily features letters, photographs, and objects relating to Acosta’s relationships with Greta Garbo, Isadora Duncan, and her sister, Rita de Acosta Lydig, which are all explored in Hallman’s musical composition.
Objects in the exhibition include:
- An erotic poem written by Isadora Duncan to Mercedes de Acosta
- Correspondence between the actress Greta Garbo and Acosta
- Acosta’s autobiography Here Lies the Heart
- An essay on Diaghilev by Stravinsky, translated from French by Acosta
- Two pairs of Rita de Acosta Lydig’s designer shoes from Pietro Yantorny, who billed himself as the most expensive shoemaker in the world
Mercedes de Acosta was born into an aristocratic Spanish-Cuban New York family, and grew up in the world of New York high society. She married the painter Abram Poole in 1920, but they came to lead separate lives and were divorced in 1935. At various times during her life she was a novelist, a playwright, a poet, and a Hollywood scriptwriter.
Acosta spent time in Paris during the early 20th century, often visiting her sister Rita Lydig(1875-1929) who lived in Paris. Lydig was a great patron of the arts in Paris and New York and a socialite who was often painted and sculpted.
The Rosenbach’s Acosta collection consists of correspondence with friends, literary and theatrical associates, and other celebrities; typescripts of Acosta’s own writings, and over 600 photographs, from snapshots and studio portraits of friends, to movie stills, photos of stage productions of her works, and fragments of motion picture film.
Joseph Hallman is ayoung American composer based in Philadelphia. The New York Timessays, “Mr. Hallman’s writing is eclectic, ranging from Bartokian muscularity to the evocation of a zither.” Hallman’s recent series of chamber concerti has garnered much acclaim, and has been composed for members of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, among others. His works have been performed in the U.S. and internationally. He has collaborated with some of today’s most talented musicians and artists including poet and screenwriter Antwone Fisher, the experimental music collective ThingNY, Kathy Supove, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and the Fischoff Grand Prize-winning Linden Quartet.
About PIFA
The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA), inspired by the Kimmel Center, launches the city’s art and cultural scene onto the world stage with a three-week festival offering performances, exhibits and events for loyal fans and casual attendees. Based on the philosophy of collaboration, innovation and creativity, PIFA’s programs represent every arts discipline and include more than 100 partners. Offerings include newly commissioned works, classical performances and exhibits, surprising partnerships featuring local and international artists, and exciting explorations of traditional, non-traditional, new and emerging art forms. PIFA 2011, an homage to the artistic energy of Paris 1910-1920, celebrates works from that era and new creations inspired by the brashly innovative spirit of the period. The festival was made possible by an extraordinary grant from Philadelphia philanthropist Leonore Annenberg, whose vision for a city-wide celebration of the arts shaped its philosophy and programming. PIFA takes place April 7-May 1, 2011.
The full slate of PIFA programming as well as complete schedule of events can be accessed via www.pifa.org and at the Kimmel Center Box Office. Tickets to individual performances and events can be purchased on the PIFA website, in person at the Kimmel Center Box Office, or by phone at (215) 546-PIFA.Tickets prices are set by individual presenting organizations, ranging from FREE to the public to $125. For the most up to date information, visit www.pifa.org or contact PIFA at (215) 546-PIFA.
Exile Among Expats: James Joyce in Parisis presented by Cozen O’Connor.
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