The collection comprises artworks by seminal figures such as Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miro, Jean Tinguely, Max Ernst, Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Le Corbusier, Sol LeWitt, Edgar Degas, Nicolas de Stael, Barbara Hepworth and Picasso.

The 35,600-square-foot Bechtler museum building was designed by the Swiss architect  Mario Botta.

Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads

The monumental installation comprises 12 bronze animal heads, re-creations of the traditional Chinese zodiac sculptures which once adorned the fountain of Yuanming Yuan, an imperial retreat in Beijing. The installation is part of an international tour which starts in New York.

I am fascinated by making public art. ‘Public’ does not just refer to the museum public; it’s for people passing by and using communal spaces. I think the public deserve the best. In the past, only a pope or an emperor had access to the artworks they commissioned. I want my work to be accessible to everyone. As Yuanming Yuan was being built, Somerset House was being constructed and for me this means that the Courtyard is the perfect setting for Circle of Animals.

Ai Weiwei, 2011

This exhibition is devoted to the Mantuan sculptor and goldsmith Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico (c. 1455–1528) for his expertise in classical antiquity. The technology for producing bronzes in multiples was refined and developed by Antico, who fostered the diffusion of the Roman statues that have become icons of western art. Enlivened with gilding and silvering, his exquisite bronze reductions of ancient Roman sculptures such as the Apollo Belvedere (c. 120–140 AD) were created just as they were coming to light during the Renaissance. Antico's bronzes are among the first to exist in multiples, however they are currently so rare that the 40 works in the exhibition — including medals, reliefs, busts, and the renowned statuettes — constitute over three fourths of the sculptor's extant oeuvre.

The exhibition features more than 40 works fashioned in silver and gold between the founding of the Achaemenid Empire ca. 550 B.C.E. and the beginning of the Islamic period in the seventh century.

The vessels on display include finely hammered bowls, cups, plates, ewers and bottles. Many of the objects were intended for elaborate, multicourse banquets, for which the Iranians were known throughout the ancient world. Others were used for more solemn religious ceremonies.  

Among the most celebrated works is a silver-gilt royal hunting plate with the portrait of Shapur II (309-379 C.E.), a Sasanian ruler recognizable by his distinctive crown. Fashioned out of 19 separate components, the plate is also one of the earliest Sasanian examples to depict a king hunting-one of the most enduring royal images from the ancient Near East.   

Vessels depicting rulers or royal hunting scenes, an activity long associated with kingship in the ancient Near East, had yet another function: they were used primarily as diplomatic gifts and sent as symbols of imperial authority to far-flung corners of the Iranian Empire and along the Silk Road as far as China, to strengthen diplomatic and commercial relations. Military conflict between Iran and its western neighbors, first with Alexander of Macedonia, which brought the Achaemenid Empire to a close in 331 B.C., and later with the Romans, who vied for territorial and economic control, introduced new techniques and motifs into Iranian metalwork. For example, the figure of Dionysus, the Roman God of wine, together with his female companions, appears on several vessels.  

Another rare and remarkable object from the Sasanian period is a wine horn, terminating in the head of a gazelle with a small spout, used for pouring out wine. Horn-shaped drinking cups of this type were continuously popular for at least a millennium.

Freer Gallery of Art
Jefferson Drive at 12th St SW

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
1050 Independence Ave SW
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

Native Life in the Americas: Artists' Views showcases the work of important though not well-known artists who focused on Native American life and culture.

This exhibition displays selected prints and books from the Tozzer Library collection, looking beyond the familiar 19th-century white male painters to include women artists, Native artists, and even one living artist. The exhibition also includes artists who were primarily illustrators, designers, and printmakers rather than painters.

The geographic focus of the exhibition is North America, though Mexico, Central America, and the Andes are also represented. The time periods in which these artists worked range from the mid-1930s through the first decade of the 21st century. Some, both Native and white, had been encouraged and supported by the Works Project Administration and similar programs during the Depression, while others’ artistic output supported them comfortably. Some were scholars as well as artists. Many worked in multiple media. Some were most productive in their adopted communities while others spent their lives comfortably close to home with their art reflecting that intimacy.

Gagosian Gallery presents The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011 by Damien Hirst.

The exhibition takes place at once across all of Gagosian Gallery’s eleven locations in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva, and Hong Kong, opening worldwide on January 12, 2012. Most of the paintings are being lent by private individuals and public institutions, more than 150 different lenders from twenty countries. Conceived as a single exhibition in multiple locations, “The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011” makes use of this demographic fact to determine the content of each exhibition according to locality.

Included in the exhibition are more than 300 paintings, from the first spot on board that Hirst created in 1986; to the smallest spot painting comprising half a spot and measuring 1 x 1/2 inch (1996); to a monumental work comprising only four spots, each 60 inches in diameter; and up to the most recent spot painting completed in 2011 containing 25,781 spots that are each 1 millimeter in diameter, with no single color ever repeated.


I was always a colorist, I’ve always had a phenomenal love of color… I mean, I just move color around on its own. So that’s where the spot paintings came from—to create that structure to do those colors, and do nothing. I suddenly got what I wanted. It was just a way of pinning down the joy of color.

—Damien Hirst

On Earth Together
Ronald K. Brown,  choreography
Music: Stevie Wonder
Evidence Dance Company

Currently celebrating its 25th anniversary season, Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence is the most important African-American based dance company to emerge since Alvin Ailey. As a choreographer, Brown’s work combines Cuban, Caribbean, West African and modern American dance forms to create a view of human struggles, tragedies and triumphs. The programme features Ronald K. Brown's latest work, On Earth Together, set to the songs of Stevie Wonder.

Jin Xing Dance Theatre Shanghai
Shanghai Tango

Shanghai Tango includes ten works that she has created over the last 25 years. Set to an eclectic collage of music from Astor Piazzolla to Johann Strauss.

Gioachino Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Libretto: Cesare Sterbini
Sung in Italian with Met titles in English, German and Spanish

Maurizio Benini, conductor
 
Rosina: Isabel Leonard
Count Almaviva: Javier Camarena
Figaro: Peter Mattei
Dr. Bartolo: Maurizio Muraro
Don Basilio: Paata Burchuladze

Production: Bartlett Sher
Set Designer: Michael Yeargan
Costume Designer: Catherine Zuber
Lighting Designer: Christopher Akerlind

Winner of nine Tony Awards including Best Musical, The Book of Mormon centers on two young Mormon missionaries sent off to spread the word in a dangerous part of Uganda. Their tale is told alongside the founder Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Trey Parker, director 
Casey Nicholaw, director 
Book, Music, Lyrics: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Robert Lopez
Casey Nicholaw, choreographer

Cast

Andrew Rannells: Elder Price 
Josh Gad: Elder Cunningham 
Nikki M. James: Nabulungi 
Rory O'Malley: Elder McKinley 
Michael Potts: Mafala Hatimbi 

Cole Porter: Anything Goes
Music & lyrics by Cole Porter;
original book by P.G. Wodehouse & Guy Bolton
and Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse;
New book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman

Kathleen Marshall, director/choreographer

When the S.S. American heads out to sea, etiquette and convention head out the portholes as two unlikely pairs set off on the course to true love… proving that sometimes destiny needs a little help from a crew of singing sailors, an exotic disguise and some good old-fashioned blackmail.

Peppering this hilariously bumpy ride are some of musical theater's most memorable standards, including “I Get a Kick out of You,” “You're the Top,” “It's De-lovely,” and  “Anything Goes.”

Cast:

Sutton Foster: Reno Sweeney 
Joel Grey: Moonface Martin 
Colin Donnell: Billy Crocker 
Adam Godley: Lord Evelyn Oakleigh 
Laura Osnes: Hope Harcourt 
Jessica Stone: Erma 
Walter Charles: Captain 
Robert Creighton: Purser 
Andrew Cao: Luke 
Raymond J. Lee: John 
John McMartin: Elisha Whitney 
Kelly Bishop: Evangeline Harcourt

The Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company presents the Los Angeles premiere of Jose Rivera’s play Marisol about God, the apocalypse, credit card debt and the hope for a brighter future

The play depicts the life of Marisol Perez, a young Puerto Rican copy editor in Manhattan.  Her world takes a tragic turn when her guardian angel is forced to abandon her for a revolution against a senile God.  Her sorrowful journey is reminiscent of modern day life, where the innocent are forced to take a stand. The narrative is enhanced by an evolving change of sets.
 
“Marisol is about so many things but I think at its core, it’s a call to the country to wake up and fight back against ‘God’: The god of religion, the God of credit, the God of big business, any monolithic power that claims to want to ‘take care’ of you, but really wants to control you,” said director Don K. Williams.  “It’s a call to the people to take back the power it has given up for centuries.”