Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini

Painting of two men standing and one man sitting staring into the distance in a natural landscape

This fall and winter, visitors to Frick Madison, the temporary home of The Frick Collection, will have an unprecedented opportunity to view two Renaissance masterpieces reunited for the first time in more than four hundred years.

Giorgione’s Three Philosophers, on rare loan from Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, will be shown in dialogue with the Frick’s beloved

St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini. The works were owned by the same Venetian collector, Taddeo Contarini (ca. 1466–1540), and were displayed for many decades in his palazzo before their separation centuries ago.

Comments Ian Wardropper, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director of the Frick, “It would be difficult to think of a more fitting conclusion for our temporary residency at Frick Madison than this once-in-a-lifetime installation. These two complex Renaissance paintings have prompted an enormous amount of commentary over the years, and we are delighted to present the pair together as an exciting farewell to this fascinating chapter in our institution’s history.”

Bellini and Giorgione in the House of Taddeo Contarini will examine the joint history of the two paintings. It has been proposed by scholars that Giorgione conceived The Three Philosophers, most likely commissioned by Contarini himself, as a companion to Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert, and they seem to have been at Contarini’s palazzo for most of the sixteenth century before being separated. At Frick Madison, the pair will be displayed—alone—in the iconic room within the Marcel Breuer–designed building where St. Francis has hung in isolated splendor, as if in a secular chapel.

This special presentation is organized by Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, who is authoring an accompanying book about the paintings and their original owner and his collection. Salomon states, “To this day, Taddeo Contarini is best known for his ownership of two masterpieces of Venetian Renaissance painting. Despite the attention that has been lavished on the paintings from his collection, Contarini remains an elusive figure, one we can understand only through some glimmers of information about him. The reunion of these two paintings brings an important part of Contarini’s collection back to life.”

Monday, October 2, 2023

Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930

Exhibition Dates: September 7–December 10, 2023

Location: The Met Fifth Avenue, Galleries 691–93, The Charles Z. Offin Gallery, Karen B. Cohen Gallery, and Harriette and Noel Levine Gallery

Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s will feature more than 100 works, from paintings, photographs, and decorative arts to fashion, film, and ephemera

The 1930s was a decade of political and social upheaval in the United States, and the art and visual culture of the time reflected the unsettled environment. Americans searched for their cultural identity during the Great Depression, a period marked by divisive politics, threats to democracy, and intensified social activism, including a powerful labor movement. Featuring more than 100 works from The Met collection and several lenders, Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s will explore how artists expressed political messages and ideologies through a range of media, from paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs to film, dance, decorative arts, fashion, and ephemera. Highlights will include paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, and Stuart Davis; prints by Elizabeth Olds, Dox Thrash, and Riva Helfond; photographs by Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange; footage of Martha Graham’s dance Frontier; and more. The exhibition will be on view September 7 through December 10, 2023.

The exhibition is made possible by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and The Schiff Foundation.

“American artists witnessed astounding hardships in the 1930s and responded fervently,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO. “As the nation confronts similar issues of political polarization and widening inequality today, this insightful exhibition serves as a poignant reminder of how artists then, like now, used their craft to connect with audiences, take action, and illuminate social ills. This presentation also brings to the fore women artists and artists of color who were often shut out of the mainstream art world.”

Allison Rudnick, Associate Curator of Drawings and Prints, said: “While visual culture in the United States has always been suffused with ideology, cultural production in the 1930s is notable for representing an exceptional range of social and political messages. Every visual medium—from prints to film to fashion—played a role in transmitting these messages to millions of Americans. The works provide a unique framework for understanding a fraught and fascinating decade, one that mirrors today’s world in many ways.”

Exhibition Overview

Organized thematically across three galleries, the exhibition will provide an unprecedented overview of the sociopolitical landscape of the United States during the 1930s.

The dire unemployment situation during the Depression galvanized many Americans to take up communist and socialist causes. Protests, demonstrations, and strikes erupted across the country, and in response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration established the WPA, the Works Progress Administration (later renamed the Work Projects Administration).

The exhibition’s first section, “Leftist Politics and Labor,” features the work of left-leaning artists who participated in the workers movement by joining artist unions and depicting laborers in their art, often using printmaking to broadcast their political beliefs to a large audience. Examples include Elizabeth Olds’s celebratory portrait of an ordinary worker,

Elizabeth Olds. American, Minneapolis, Minnesota 1896–1991 Sarasota, Florida Miner Joe Print 1942, Screenprint image: 16 1/2 x 12 1/4 in. (41.9 x 31.1 cm),sheet: 18 3/4 x 12 3/4 in. (47.6 x 32.4 cm). Museum Accession, transferred from the Lending Library Collectio

Miner Joe (The Met), and Charlie Chaplin’s parody of assembly-line work in his satirical film Modern Times.

A watercolor by Dox Thrash offers a rare depiction of people of color organizing and participating in a 1930s labor strike (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts),

and Norman Lewis’s lithograph The Soup Kitchen (The Met) calls attention to the particularly damaging effects of the Depression on Black Americans and other marginalized groups. Artists also spread their ideological messages through illustrations in communist and socialist magazines, including Hugo Gellert’s, William Gropper’s, and Phil Bard’s contributions to New Masses.

Many who faced unprecedented hardship during the Depression found solace and a sense of belonging and pride in their American identity. The second section, “Cultural Nationalisms,” reveals how the visual and material culture of the 1930s ultimately reflected nuanced and often conflicting stories about American identity. Some artists looked to the past, reviving historical American subjects, styles, and techniques, while others focused on the present by documenting the plight of those hit hardest by the economic downturn.

Martha Graham romanticized the rural United States in her dance Frontier, while photographs by

Walker Evans

and Dorothea Lange reveal the harsh realities that tenant farmers faced during the Depression. Charles White sought to lay the groundwork for a more inclusive narrative of the nation’s history by bringing into focus the contributions of Black Americans, as seen in his

graphite study of Sojourner Truth and Booker T. Washington (The Newark Museum of Art) for a larger mural composition. The prevailing interest in cultural nationalism was evident in the expanded market for Indigenous American art, such as

Tonita Peña. San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico 1893–1949 Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico,Pueblo Parrot Dance. Gouache ca. 1935. Gouache over graphite, Framed: 23 1/4 in. × 29 1/4 in. × 1 1/4 in. (59.1 × 74.3 × 3.2 cm), Sheet: 14 × 22 in. (35.6 × 55.9 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington, Corcoran Collection, Gift of Amelia E. White, 2015.

Tonita Peña’s Pueblo Parrot Dance and Velino Shije Herrera’s Deer Hunters (both from National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.).

Even as the country weathered unprecedented financial strife, the United States became a world leader in technological and industrial innovation, as showcased in the third and final section, “The Promise of Progress.” The world’s fairs of the 1930s celebrated American exceptionalism and projected visions of a prosperous future. Millions of visitors experienced patriotic propaganda in exhibitions and at performances, and many more who did not attend were still exposed to it through posters, postcards, and other ephemera, such as

Joseph Binder’s New York World’s Fair, The World of Tomorrow poster (Library of Congress).

Augusta Savage’s 16-foot sculpture Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Harp), one of the most popular attractions at the New York World’s Fair but destroyed after it closed, will be represented in the exhibition by a small-scale replica (New-York Historical Society).

The fields of graphic, industrial, and architectural design led the way in developing aesthetic movements that emphasized advancement and modernization. Examples of streamline—the most influential design trend to originate in the United States—include

Norman Bel Geddes’s “Patriot” radio, Isamu Noguchi’s “Radio Nurse” baby monitor, and Gilbert Rohde’s electric clock (all from The Met).

The phrase “art for the millions” in the exhibition’s title comes from an unpublished 1936 national report on the WPA’s Federal Art Project. Essays by participating artists and administrators were ultimately published in 1973 in what became a well-known anthology of the same name.

Credits and Related Content

Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s is curated by Allison Rudnick, Associate Curator in The Met’s Department of Drawings and Prints.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press, the catalogue will be available for purchase from The Met Store.

Images

Charles Sheeler Americana, 1931 The Met

Don Powell Grand Canyon National Park A Free Government Service, ca. 1938 LoC

Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue

Georgia O'Keeffe American 1931

Hugo Gellert Daily Worker, ca. 1935 MCBC

/Lester Beall Rural Electrification Administration, Light, 1937 MCBC

Stuart Davis Men and Machine, 1934 The Met

Louis Guglielmi One Third of a Nation 1939 The Met

Coming Home: The Transformative Gift of the Janet & William Ellery James Collection

Over 300 works by Milton Avery, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Marsden Hartley, Jane Peterson, Paul Manship, Winslow Homer, and many others being gifted by the Jameses of Palm Beach, Florida, formerly of Rockport, Massachusetts

Collection spotlight now on view through December 31, 2023

The Cape Ann Museum (CAM) has announced the transformative commitment by Janet and William Ellery “Wilber” James of Palm Beach, Florida to gift their exceptional collection of Cape Ann American art - a donation that constitutes the largest single gift of works in the Cape Ann Museum’s 148-year history.

This landmark donation of over 300 exemplary pieces of American art brings new genres and masterworks to the Museum’s holdings, including pivotal pieces by Winslow Homer, George Aarons, Cecilia Beaux, Stuart Davis, Adolph Gottlieb, Marsden Hartley, Eric Hudson, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Paul Manship and Jane Peterson amongst numerous others.

“We are overjoyed by Janet and Wilber’s generosity and dedication to fuel the expansion of the Museum’s holdings,” said Museum Director Oliver Barker. “The Jameses have partnered with the Museum to add a significant corpus of new pieces to their collection in recent years. We celebrate their shared vision and lifelong quest to assemble works by eminent artists, as well as significant yet lesser- known artists, who have illuminated the inexhaustible human spirit that has animated and enriched Cape Ann for centuries.”

The James’s instrumental gift builds on over a century of generous donations of artwork, artifacts and archival materials that the Museum has received from numerous individual members of this community, who like Janet and Wilber, cherish Cape Ann and are inspired by the impact that such gifts have on the Museum’s efficacy and momentum. “News of this major gift comes as the Museum works to strategically expand its collections in advance of its 150^th anniversary in 2025,” Barker said. “We are hopeful that the James’s generosity and lifelong journey to collect provides impetus to others to join in strengthening the Museum’s growing holdings which revolve around this singularly unique place and the people who for millennia have called Cape Ann home.”

The James’s announcement is being marked with a display of 33 pieces on view through December 31, 2023 in an exhibition Coming Home: Selections from the Janet & William Ellery James Collection. This exhibit and the accompanying catalog marks an inaugural opportunity to showcase highlights from this superlative collection, and to present the James’s vision and commitment to the arts to the broader community.

In speaking about the gift and exhibition in particular the Museum’s Chief Curator, Martha Oaks, shared that “a significant portion of the artists from the James Collection including March Avery, Fern Coppedge, Arthur Dove, Adolph Gottlieb, Thomas Hart Benton, Robert Henri and Rockwell Kent have until now not been represented in the Museum’s collection.” Works on view in Coming Home have been selected to complement the current landmark exhibition Edward Hopper & Cape Ann: Illuminating an American Landscape on view. Coming Home exemplifies the depth and breadth of the James’s donation which will dramatically amplify the Museum’s ability to showcase the rich artistic history of Cape Ann between the mid-19^th and mid-20^th centuries.

Wilber James has had an extensive career as an entrepreneur, founding multiple companies in the international energy sector as well as in banking and real estate. He serves as Trustee Emeritius of the Cape Ann Museum and the African Wildlife Foundation, is a Peace Corps alumnus (Kenya), and is a Board member of the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida.

Janet James has a background in Finance and investment, both in banking and the private sector. She currently serves as Trustee of the Cape Ann Museum and is a Commissioner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, as well as a Board member of the Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida. About their collection and gift the Jameses shared:

“We view the collection as a gathering of dear friends brought together over time. Recognizing that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, we have a deep wish to keep these pieces together rather than having them disperse and disappear into private hands. We felt that gifting the entire collection to the Cape Ann Museum is the best way to have them “Come Home”, to be shared with and enjoyed by Cape Ann’s residents and visitors. We recognize that we are really not the owners, but rather the stewards of these works, and of the artists’ legacies.”

“This pivotal collection gift builds on the James’s extraordinary vision and generosity to create the new Cape Ann Museum Green (CAM Green) campus at the gateway to Cape Ann” Barker said. CAM Green, off Grant Circle and Route 128 in Gloucester, MA, is an historical site that includes the Janet and William Ellery James Center, which provides critical state-of-the-art storage for the Museum’s expanding collections as well as community space for education and art installations.

“We are standing on the shoulders of those who came before us,” said Wilber James, who was raised in Rockport and whose family has longstanding, multi-generational, Cape Ann roots.“The CAM Green campus builds on the vision and history of our forebears and sets the stage for the next generation as the Cape Ann Museum becomes renowned as a leading regional museum of American art, education, and community engagement.”

George Aarons (1896-1980)

Europa

1941

Bronze

11” x 10” x 9”