High Museum 2011 highlights draw heavily from MOMA treasures

After drawing larger-than-expected crowds in 2010 for exhibitions of custom-designed automobiles and Salvador Dali's lesser-known later works, the High Museum of Art will roll out a prestigious contender to eclipse them in 2011. "Picasso to Warhol: Twelve Modern Masters" will be a broad survey show of major pieces by important artists -- the sort that you'd expect to see in New York.

In fact, the exhibit is being imported from the Big Apple, the most ambitious undertaking so far of a four-year partnership with the Museum of Modern Art. It brings a trove of work rarely seen in the Southeast by a dozen artists who played major roles in charting the landscape of 20th century art: Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi, Piet Mondrian, Fernand Leger, Marcel Duchamp, Giorgio De Chirico, Joan Miro, Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol.

"Picasso to Warhol" is the highlight of a diverse slate planned by Atlanta's biggest museum this year.

"I think it's a truly unique opportunity, for not only Atlanta and Georgia, but really for our region, to follow the story, take the ride, from the dawn of the 20th century all the way through to the present day," High director Michael Shapiro said in an exclusive interview with the AJC.

For visitors, the 100-plus-work "Picasso to Warhol" will flow like a dozen individual shows, each juxtaposing early expressions with mature pieces.

"Our hope is by [organizing the exhibit] monographically, that we really would be setting a new foundation for our audience, so they can have a more profound understanding of the modern world," Shapiro added of the exhibit that will run Oct. 15, 2011, to April 29, 2012. "We are a very modern, contemporary city, and we should as a community not only understand but embrace the pioneers of modern art."

The High will provide a context, but there's no doubt that some viewers will be attracted simply by the opportunity to see so many masterworks in one place. Among the attractions will be Picasso's 1939 "Night Fishing at Antibes," Matisse's 12-foot-9-inch-wide "Dance (I)" (1909), Leger's "Three Women" (1921-22), Pollock's "Number 1A" (1948), Johns' 1961 "Map" of the United States and Warhol's 32-canvas "Campbell's Soup Cans" (1962).

"There's only one collection in the world that you can actually do this survey with: the MOMA collection," Shapiro said. "The ‘Picasso to Warhol' show plays to MOMA's tremendous strengths."

The High kicked off its four-year collaboration with MOMA in June 2009, with a show of Claude Monet's water lily paintings.

The second installment of that partnership will come before "Picasso to Warhol" opens. "Modern by Design," June 4-Aug. 14, will feature nearly 150 objects and survey the growth and evolution of MOMA's design collection and exhibitions since the New York museum's 1929 founding. The High will mount a companion show, "High Design," incorporating 30 works from its growing contemporary design collection.

A second large-scale exhibition and two additional "focus" shows examining specific parts of MOMA's collection are in development for 2012 and 2013.

Though it's not specifically an exhibit developed in partnership with MOMA, the High also has booked a massive touring photography show organized by the New York museum, "Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century," Feb. 19-May 29.

While it would seem that the High will be speaking with something of a New York accent this year, an exhibit by an Atlanta artist stands out among the four other shows announced so far. "Radcliffe Bailey: Memory as Medicine," June 26-Sept. 11, looks at the influence of African art on the work of the noted African-American artist, exploring 30 works created since 1994.

"We've acquired a number of works by Radcliffe, and he's widely acknowledged to be one of the leading artists, if not the leading artist, from our community," Shapiro said. "Celebrating that while we're launching our project with MOMA is an added plus for us -- to celebrate a great artist who lives among us while we celebrate a number of artists who have lived elsewhere."

Also coming to the High in 2011

• "Toulouse-Lautrec and Friends: The Irene and Howard Stein Collection," Jan. 29-May 1: Featuring some 80 works, including 47 new gifts to the collection from the retired Atlanta couple, as well as approximately 30 works that were either previously given to the High by the Steins or purchased with funds given by them. The exhibit will include prized Toulouse-Lautrec works such as the rare color lithograph "La Clownesse au Moulin Rouge" (1897), and "Miss Loïe Fuller" (1893), a ghostly image of the American dancer that incorporates powdered gold. Also to be exhibited: prints and drawings by Pierre Bonnard, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Honoré Daumier and Paul Signac, as well as sculpture.

• "Fifty Works for Fifty States: The Dorothy and Herb Vogel Collection," Jan. 29-June 5: The High is one of 50 American museums receiving works from the New York couple, who built one of the top conceptual and minimalist art collections from his postal clerk salary while living on her librarian earnings. Twenty seven of the High acquisitions are drawings by American artist Richard Tuttle.