Temperatures are already sizzling, so we’re cranking up the AC for a bunch of relaxing indoor activities perfect for getting out of the heat. This July, The Wolfsonian–FIU embraces summer by inviting Miami for refreshing, beachy drinks at our members-only Summer Mixer(7/12), hosted by new Wolfsonian membership manager Alexandra O’Neale. Culture-wise, there’s also Sketching in the Galleries (7/26) and the cult-horror classic The Black Cat, the third film in Lights, Camera, Deco, our Art Deco museum-and-a-movie program co-organized with the Miami Beach Cinematheque (7/28)—this popular series always sells out, so encourage your readers to jump on tickets now!
Lastly, if you haven’t yet checked out our acclaimed new installation, Cuban Caricature and Culture: The Art of Massaguer, we highly recommend a visit to our 5th floor and a stop at our south façade, where a pop-up display, Cover Girls, presents Conrado Massaguer-designed historic covers of the Cuban publication Social alongside contemporary homages by Miami artist Andres Conde.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Fri, July 12 | 6–8pm
Members Only | Summer Mixer
Summer is here, and while things heat up on the beach we’re keeping it cool with our Member Mixer! Celebrate the start of the season and mingle with your fellow Wolfsonian members over art, light bites, and summery drinks by our resident mixologist, Carlton Maloney. Then join Wolfsonian curator Shoshana Resnikoff for an in-depth tour of our current exhibition, Deco: Luxury to Mass Market.
Free and open to members; to become a member, join online or call 305.535.2648 | RSVP
Fri, July 26 | 7–8:30pm
Sketching in the Galleries
Tap into your inner artist by sketching in our galleries! Drawing materials, gallery stools, and professional bilingual instruction provided to participants of all ages and skill levels. English/Spanish
Free and open to the public; walk-in basis, no RSVP required
Sun, July 28 | 4–6:15pm (4pm tour + 5pm film)
Lights, Camera, Deco: The Black Cat
The Black Cat is a 1934 cult-classic horror film centered on a young couple kicking off their honeymoon only to find themselves entrenched in satanic rituals. Drawing inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis Brown House, this haunted home isn’t your standard crumbling castle! Make it a day of Deco, first through a 4pm tour of Deco: Luxury to Mass Market at The Wolfsonian, then through the demonic sets of The Black Cat across the street at the Cinematheque at 5pm.
$11; FREE* for MBC and Wolfsonian members, seniors, and students | Tickets
*Optional tour of Deco at The Wolf is included in the film admission price.
Weekly on Fri | 6–6:45pm
Free Friday Guided Tours
Learn more about The Wolfsonian and related art and design themes during a 45-minute free guided tour of the building, collection, or exhibitions. New guides bring different perspectives each week!
Free and open to the public
EXHIBITIONS + INSTALLATIONS
Through August 25
Deco Designs
Deco Designs highlights decorative compositions from leading artists and designers working in Paris in the 1920s. Featuring vibrantly colorful and complex patterns, this library installation illustrates a variety of influences and individual styles and shows how Deco borrowed from exotic and ancient cultures, contemporaneous avant-garde movements, and modern technologies. Produced using the pochoir technique, a refined and labor-intensive stenciling process, the handmade prints on view epitomize the opulence of the era. Compiled in luxury portfolios and marketed to collectors, design studios, and artists, they inspired designs for interior decoration and helped spread the spirit of Art Deco.
The Wolfsonian’s library installations are generously sponsored by Henry S. Hacker. Deco Designs is presented concurrently with the museum’s major exhibition Deco: Luxury to Mass Market.
Through August 31
Cover Girls
The brainchild of publisher, illustrator, and art director Conrado W. Massaguer, Social set the tone for Cuban values and taste in the early 20th century. From the 1920s into the 1950s the influential magazine launched the careers of numerous Cuban artists and popularized a bold Art Deco aesthetic, particularly in its depictions of young women—flapper types who showed off the fashion, makeup, and hairstyle trends of the time.
Many of Massaguer’s original Social covers are displayed in Cuban Caricature and Culture: The Art of Massaguer, an installation of recent gifts by collector Vicki Gold Levi to The Wolfsonian Library. Shown along the museum’s 10th Street facade is just a taste of these covers, presented alongside two of Miami artist Andres Conde’s contemporary reinterpretations of Massaguer’s historic “ideals.” More work by Conde will be featured in Deco Fashion: Painted Illustration, an exhibition opening September 19, 2019, at the Art Deco Museum located just two blocks away from The Wolfsonian on Ocean Drive.
Through February 2
Cuban Caricature and Culture: The Art of Massaguer
With his biting political satire, celebrity caricatures, and magazine and advertising illustrations, graphic artist Conrado Walter Massaguer (1889–1965) helped shape the visual culture of his native Cuba between the 1920s and 1950s. This installation of works recently gifted to The Wolfsonian Library by Vicki Gold Levi will bring forth Massaguer’s legacy through dozens of works, from images of the “New Woman” flapper ideal (the so-called “Massa-girls”) in his magazine Social to depictions of tropical paradise for the Cuban Tourist Commission. Massaguer’s transnational reach will be shown in his covers for Collier’s and Life, while cartoons of visiting dignitaries and Hollywood stars will reveal how he rubbed shoulders with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, and the King of Spain—all evidence of an artist at the center of Havana’s cosmopolitan culture in the decades before the Cuban Revolution.
Ongoing
Deco: Luxury to Mass Market
“Art Deco” has come to evoke a set of styles that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s out of aspirations to fuse art and industry into a modern language of design. From exquisite handcrafted objects to streamlined household appliances, the items on display in Deco will demonstrate how American designers adapted a style associated with European luxury to the demands of industrial mass production. Through decorative arts, product design, architecture, and graphics from the Wolfsonian collection, the exhibition will trace Art Deco’s origins in Europe, its migration to the United States, and its evolution into a fully American style—perhaps most spectacularly realized on Miami Beach in the 1930s.
Deco: Luxury to Mass Market is made possible by Diane and Alan Lieberman and the South Beach Group, with the support of Jamestown, L.P., and Saul and Jane Gross and Streamline Properties.
Ongoing
Art and Design in the Modern Age: Selections from the Wolfsonian Collection
These galleries provide an overview of the museum’s holdings of American and European artifacts from 1850 to 1950. Culled from The Wolfsonian collection are approximately three hundred works in a variety of formats, ranging from books, posters, and postcards to decorative arts, architectural models, paintings, and sculptures. Focal points include design reform movements, urbanism, industrial design, transportation, world’s fairs, advertising, and political propaganda. Inaugurated in November 1996, this ongoing exhibition is periodically updated.
The Wolfsonian is located at 1001 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, FL. Admission is $12 for adults; $8 for seniors, students, and children ages 6–18; and free for Wolfsonian members, State University System of Florida staff and students with ID, and children under 6. The museum is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 10am–6pm; Friday, 10am–9pm; Sunday, noon–6pm; and is closed on Wednesday. Contact us at 305.531.1001 or visit us online at wolfsonian.org for further information.