Crystal Bridges
January 18 through April 21, 2014
Every art collector has a first love. For Crystal Bridges’ founder and board chairwoman Alice Walton, it was watercolor painting that initially drew her attention. At First Sight offers a glimpse into how her early interest in watercolor grew into a lifelong love of art.
Georgia O'Keeffe, Evening Star II, 1917, Watercolor on paper.
(Photography by Dwight Primiano. Courtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas)
Making watercolor paintings has brought Walton great joy over the years, and it also contributed to her deep appreciation for the work of professional artists. Her initial interest in collecting watercolors grew into a fascination with American art, which soon inspired her to collect works by American artists in many media. At First Sight: Collecting the American Watercolor offers the rare opportunity to view some of the paintings that sparked Walton’s earliest collecting interests, including works by Thomas Hart Benton, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Andrew Wyeth, and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Childe Hassam, Isles of Shoales, 1886, watercolor and gouache on paper piece
(Photography by Dwight Primiano. Courtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas)
Like all artworks on paper, these paintings and drawings are only on view for a short time, as their exposure to light must be limited.
John Marin, Telephone Building, (1926)
(Photography by Tim Thayer. Courtesy Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas)
