Guarding the Art

 For the first time in the Baltimore Museum of Art’s (BMA) history, the people who protect the art have selected the art. Guarding the Art, an exhibition curated entirely by 17 current and former members of the museum’s security team, opens on Sunday, March 27, with approximately 25 works of art from across the BMA’s collection. 

Max Ernst. Earthquake, Late Afternoon. 1948. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Bequest of Saidie A. May. BMA 1951.297. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Winslow Homer. Waiting an Answer. 1872. The Peabody Art Collection. Collection of the Maryland State Archives. L.1924.25.16

Max Beckmann. Still Life with Large Shell. 1939. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of William A. Dickey, Jr., BMA 1955.77. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Mickalene Thomas. Resist #2. 2021. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Purchase with exchange funds from the Pearlstone Family Fund and partial gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., BMA 2021.13 © Mickalene Thomas

Unattributed artist. Seated Male Figure. 6th-10th century. Quimbaya culture, Colombia. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Bequest of Alan Wurtzburger. BMA 1960.30.84

Sam Gilliam. Blue Edge. 1971. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of Selma Rosen, Baltimore, BMA 1992.131. © Sam Gilliam; Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Jane Frank. Winter’s End. 1958. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of Ruth M. Bernstein, Baltimore. BMA 1963.19

Hale Woodruff. Normandy Landscape. 1928. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Fund, BMA 2002.279

The exhibition highlights the unique perspectives of the officers and their reflections on the featured objects are drawn from their many hours in the galleries, their interactions with visitors, and their personal stories and interests. Works by Jeremy Alden, Louise Bourgeois, Sam Gilliam, Grace Hartigan, Winslow Homer, Alma W. Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, and unidentified artists from Colombia, Costa Rica, and the Solomon Islands are among those featured in the exhibition. Guarding the Art is on view through July 10, and includes a fully illustrated catalogue.

The project was conceived last year by BMA Trustee Amy Elias as the result of a conversation with Dr. Asma Naeem, BMA Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Chief Curator, about ways to engage with the security guards who spend more time with the museum’s collection than anyone else. Following that initial conversation, Elias continued to think about this challenge and then presented her concept of Guarding the Art to BMA leadership who wholeheartedly embraced the idea.

“Guarding the Art is more personal than typical museum shows as it gives visitors a unique opportunity to see, listen and learn the personal histories and motivations of guest curators,” said Elias. “In this way, the exhibition opens a door for how a visitor might feel about the art, rather than just providing a framework for how to think about the art.”

The project began with an inquiry sent to all members of the BMA’s security team gauging their interest in developing an exhibition that would provide them with an opportunity to have their voices heard through their perspectives about the museum’s collection. Seventeen members of the BMA signed on as guest curators and have worked over the past year in collaboration with museum leadership and staff to engage in every facet of exhibition development. The guest curators include Traci Archable-Frederick, Jess Bither, Ben Bjork, Ricardo Castro, Melissa Clasing, Bret Click, Alex Dicken, Kellen Johnson, Michael Jones, Rob Kempton, Chris Koo, Alex Lei, Dominic Mallari, Dereck Mangus, Sara Ruark, Joan Smith, and Elise Tensley.  Renowned art historian and curator Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims provided additional mentorship and professional development guidance. Along with the creative opportunity, each participant was compensated for their time with funds directed from a lead grant from the Pearlstone Family Foundation.

For many of the guest curators, selecting the objects for the exhibition was the most challenging aspect of this project. After proposing up to three top choices, the group met with curators, conservators, and exhibition designers to learn more about each work, its condition, and presentation requirements. They debated several variations of the gallery floor plan and made final selections based on how well the works would fit in the spaces. Once that was completed, work on writing the object labels and producing content for the publication began. The team also met with education team members to develop public programs and marketing team members to discuss graphic identity, social media, and communications. All of their work, which continues through the July 10 closing of the exhibition, was coordinated by Sarah Cho, BMA Curatorial Assistant for American Painting & Sculpture and Decorative Arts, and Katie Cooke, BMA Curatorial Assistant to the Chief Curator and the Curatorial Division.

“There is so much more to see in the BMA’s collection than what’s on the gallery walls. It’s been exciting to get first-hand experience in organizing an exhibition and discovering all the behind-the-scenes considerations. It gives you a new respect for how museums work and the stories they tell,” said Elise Tensley. “I cannot wait to see all the objects we’ve selected on display.”

Exhibition

Guarding the Art reflects a broad range of backgrounds and interests with officers who are also artists, chefs, musicians, scholars, and writers. Kellen Johnson selected two works that have a connection to music and Black artists, respectively: Max Beckmann’s Still Life with Large Shell (1939), a portrait of his wife, Mathilde, who was a violinist and singer, and Hale Woodruff’s Normandy Landscape (1928), created when the artist was living in France. Joan Smith appreciates objects that are both functional and beautiful and chose a Water Bottle (Early 20th century) by an unidentified Mono artist in the Solomon Islands and a Bottleneck Basket (c.1875) by an unidentified Yokuts artist in California. Ben Bjork brings attention to the humor in art with Jeremy Alden’s 50 Dozen (2005/2008)—a chair composed entirely of Ticonderoga pencils that would break if sat upon—and British designer James Hadley’s satirical porcelain Teapot (1882).

Several objects were selected because of the time the officers spent regarding the works in the galleries. Dominic Mallari chose Sam Gilliam’s Blue Edge (1971), a powerful painting with bursts of color that evoke rings of noise and the sound of music he likens to “a melodic mess, like hearing the instrumental battles of musicians,” and Alfred Dehodencq’s Little Girl (c. 1850), which he admires for its combination of innocence and spunk. Bret Click enjoys interacting with visitors and invites them to find specific details in Entry into the Ark (c. 1575–1580), a grand painting attributed to Jacopo Bassano with assistance of Leandro and Francesco Bassano. Michael Jones designed a special case for Émile Antoine Bourdelle’s Head of Medusa (Door Knocker) (1925), so that he could finally experience the object without worrying about it being touched by visitors.

In some cases, the exhibition brings forward objects and artists that are overlooked or underrepresented. These include the House of Frederick Crey (1830-35) attributed to Thomas Ruckle, which provides an early glimpse of Baltimore’s Mt. Vernon neighborhood where Dereck Mangus lives, and Winslow Homer’s Waiting an Answer (1872), which Alex Lei admitted was one he didn’t notice until he stopped moving. “It’s strangely reflective of the experience of being a guard—a job mostly made up of waiting.” Elise Tensley focused on women artists and selected Winter’s End (1958) by Jane Frank, an abstract painting by a Baltimore-based artist that hasn’t been on view since 1983. Ricardo Castro’s desire to see more works by Latinx artists prompted his choice of a Seated Male Figure (500-1000) by an unidentified Quimbaya artist in Colombia, an Effigy Vessel of Standing Dignitary (500 BCE-CE 500) by an unidentified Jama-Coaque artist in Ecuador, and a Figure of a Shaman (Sukia) (1000-1520) from an unidentified Atlantic Watershed artist in Costa Rica. He also advocated for an empty plinth with an image of the Puerto Rican flag to represent the absence of works from his heritage.

One of the most admired artists is Grace Hartigan, whose Pallas Athena—Fire (1961) attracted Jess Bither with its swirling colors of potential energy, considered by many to be a self-portrait of the artist. She was also drawn to the mysterious melancholy aura of Louise Bourgeois’s sculpture Spring (1948-49/1984). Rob Kempton was inspired by passion, defiance, and revelation in Hartigan’s painting Interior, (The Creeks) (1957). He also chose Alma W. Thomas’s Evening Glow (1972), a painting he describes as a celebration of color and nature that gave him a deep calmness the first time he saw it. Chris Koo selected Philip Guston’s The Oracle (1974), which inspires him to create art with freedom and honesty rather than the approval of others. He also chose Mark Rothko’s Black over Reds [Black on Red] (1957) as a moment for meditation.

Several guest curators are interested in works that speak to social justice and resilience. Resist #2 (2021), by Mickalene Thomas, spoke to Traci Archable-Frederick as a representation of “then and now” from the 1960s Civil Rights Movement to the protests following the murders of Freddie Gray and George Floyd. Sara Ruark sees Karel Appel’s A World in Darkness (1962) as a reminder of how mankind falls apart during times of suffering, trauma, and horror. She also interprets Miniature Totem Pole (mid-20th century) by an unidentified Haida artist as a means of economic survival amidst the continued injustices faced by Indigenous people. Alex Dicken was drawn to the unusual color palette and absence of figures in Max Ernst’s Earthquake, Late Afternoon (1948), an ecological catastrophe that he noticed appears almost serene, but indicates a hidden crisis from a vantage point of a world without human observers.

Graphic Eloquence: American Modernism on Paper from the Collection of Michael T. Ricker

 

Museums and scholars revisit the story of American modernism regularly, but few exhibitions have examined modernist works on paper. “Graphic Eloquence: American Modernism on Paper from the Collection of Michael T. Ricker,” on view from March 5 to September 4, 2022, at the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia, hopes to change that conversation. The exhibition includes approximately 150 works by 70 artists, both well known and overlooked, and will be accompanied by a catalogue published by the museum.

William Baziotes (American, 1912 – 1963), untitled (abstraction), 1945. Ink and watercolor, 11 9/16 × 14 1/16 inches. Promised gift of Michael T. Ricker. 

Modernism reflected global shifts in thought and expression, partially as a result of the industrial revolution. The Armory Show of 1913, which opened in New York, is generally accepted as the starting point of American modernism. Although European artists received the majority of attention and exhibition space in the gallery compared to American artists, its influence was wide reaching, and artists who saw the show soon began experimenting with abstract form and new subject matter in response.

“Graphic Eloquence” aims to show the ways modernist experimentation played out through printmaking and other paper-based media, as artists invented new technologies and reinvented old ones. The exhibition includes examples of works in casein, cellocut, charcoal, collage, collagraphy, colored pencil, conté, encaustic (gesso-wax), gouache, graphite, ink, intaglio, lithography, mezzotint, monotype, oil, serigraphy, silverpoint, tempera, watercolor, woodcut and wood engraving. Its artists range similarly across the United States, including particularly strong examples by Texas artists from the Fort Worth Circle, proving once again that modernism was not purely an East Coast phenomenon.

Many of the works featured in the exhibition are part of a gift to the museum. Curator of American art Jeffrey Richmond-Moll said, “We are grateful to Michael Ricker for generously gifting these diverse expressions of the American modernist spirit to the museum. Works on paper are a longstanding strength of our museum, and Ricker’s donation will decisively deepen the stories we tell about this medium and the evolution of American abstraction across broader geographies and artistic networks.”

Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, 1948–1960

 The first major museum exhibition to explore the early work of Roy Lichtenstein, one the most celebrated American artists of the 20th century, will be on view at the Columbus Museum of Art from March 4 through June 5, 2022. Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, 1948–1960 offers an in-depth view of the artist’s years in Columbus, Ohio, and includes approximately 90 works on loan from public and private collections in a range of media. With many works on public view for the first time, this unprecedented exhibition demonstrates the formal invention and provocative nature of Lichtenstein’s early work.

“Many people know Roy Lichtenstein’s work but may not be aware of his formative years in Ohio. Until this exhibition, almost no one had really seen this work all together,” said Nannette Maciejunes, CMA executive director and CEO. “This region helped shape Lichtenstein’s towering achievements in American art, and the Columbus Museum of Art is a perfect place to share a more robust story of his development as an artist.”

Born in New York City in 1923, Lichtenstein went on to enroll in and teach at The Ohio State University, where the progressive curriculum and a focus on visual perception influenced his irreverent response to American history and culture. The artist’s studies were interrupted when he served in the Army during World War II, an experience that also allowed him to see a wealth of European art in person. After he returned to Ohio, Lichtenstein quickly synthesized modern art styles to create an innovative and personalized body of work. By the early 1950s Lichtenstein was exhibiting regularly in New York and began to receive critical attention.

Before 1960, Lichtenstein’s art was filled with characteristic humor and evoked many of the themes that would become synonymous with his later career. He borrowed from earlier styles and displayed an avid interest in popular culture, including fairy tales, caricature, folk art and children’s art. He also drew upon various forms of Americana, such as 19th-century paintings of the Great Plains, as well as the cartoon characters Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. These and other vernacular inspirations are the essential but little-known precursors to the artist’s later appropriations of popular culture associated with the Pop Art movement of the 1960s from comic books, advertisements and newspapers.

The exhibition also tells the story of Lichtenstein’s brief but instrumental flirtation with abstraction in 1959 and 1960. Coinciding with the broader acceptance of Abstract Expressionism, these paintings illustrate how the artist was inspired to engage with the movement’s pervasive influence, but not without inserting his characteristic humor and wit.

“Lichtenstein’s work is often poised between irony and admiration,” said Tyler Cann, CMA’s acting chief curator, who is overseeing the exhibition in Columbus. “This exhibition will present a new Roy Lichtenstein for many visitors, and it is fascinating to see that key elements of his later work are there.”

Catalogue

Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, 1948–1960 is accompanied by a 224-page publication of the same title that features new contributions by leading scholars in the field.

Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, 1948–1960 is co-organized by the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. The exhibition is co-curated by Elizabeth Finch, Lunder Chief Curator at the Colby Museum and Marshall N. Price, Chief Curator and Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum. Support for this exhibition and its national tour is provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional catalogue support is provided by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.

Image Credit: Roy Lichtenstein, Self-Portrait at an Easel, c. 1951–1952. Oil on canvas, 34 1/16 x 30 1/8 inches (86.5 x 76.5 cm). Private collection. © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein.

Annibale Carracci. The frescoes from the Herrera Chapel

 Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid

3/8/2022 - 6/12/2022

The Apostles around the Empty Tomb of the Virgin FRANCESCO ALBANI Mural painting transferred to canvas, 193 x 272.5 cm 1604-5 Barcelona, Museu Nacional d´Art de Catalunya, deposit of the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi. In the early years of the 17th century Annibale Carracci (Bologna, 1560 - Rome, 1609) accepted the commission from Juan Enríquez de Herrera to paint frescoes in his family chapel in San Giacomo degli Spagnoli in Rome. Carracci devised the entire scheme and painted some of the frescoes prior to 1605 when he became seriously ill, which obliged him to cease working on the project and entrust the execution of the paintings to Francesco Albani. Despite the fact that this was the most important commission which Carracci received in the final phase of his career, these frescoes - which depict scenes from the life of Saint Didacus of Alcalá, an Andalusian Franciscan who died in 1463 - are almost unknown to the general public in their entirety, partly due to the fact that they were separated from each other. Following the removal of the frescoes from the chapel walls due to the deterioration of the church, of the 19 surviving fragments only 16 reached Spain (7 are in the Museo Nacional del Prado and 9 entered the Royal Catalan Fine Arts Academy of Saint George from where they were sent on long-term deposit to the MNAC), while the remaining 3 were deposited in the church of Santa Maria in Monserrato in Rome where it has not been possible to locate them. The altar painting was also sent to that church, where it remains today. The group in the Museo Nacional del Prado comprises seven frescoes. The first are the four trapeze-shaped canvases that decorated the chapel ceiling and which depict episodes from the life of the titular saint: Saint Didacus receiving Alms, The miraculous Meal, Saint Didacus saves the Boy who fell asleep in the Oven and Saint Didacus receives the Franciscan Habit. The Prado also houses three of the ovals from the pendentives: Saint Lawrence, Saint Francis and Saint James the Greater. These works are now being exhibited for the first time since their recent restoration. The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) in Barcelona houses nine more murals (on deposit from the Royal Catalan Fine Arts Academy of Saint George which they entered on 9 August 1851). These are the two that were located on the exterior of the chapel above its doorway, depicting The Assumption of the Virgin, and The Apostles around the Virgin’s empty Tomb, plus a further four that had been removed from the chapel’s side walls: The Preaching of Saint Didacus, Saint Didacus heals the blind Youth, The Apparition of Saint Didacus above his Tomb, and The Miracle of the Roses. In addition, the MNAC has three other frescoes: God the Father, removed from the circular cover of the roof lantern; Saint Peter; and Saint Paul, the two saints that flanked the altar painting on the end wall of the chapel. The altar painting, which is an oil on panel, depicts Saint Didacus of Alcalá interceding for Diego Enríquez de Herrera. It is now in the church of Santa Maria in Monserrato in Rome. These paintings are shown in the exhibition alongside related drawings, prints that depict lost fragments, and books of funeral services of Spanish monarchs which include images of the interior of the church’s interior. |- Curator: Andrés Úbeda, Associate Director of Curatorship at the Museo Nacional del Prado

Monet to Matisse: Impressionist Masterpieces from the Bemberg Foundation

 

The San Diego Museum of Art 

March 19 through August 7, 2022

This marks the first time the Bemberg Foundation’s Impressionism collection, which rarely leaves its permanent home in France, has traveled to California and is one of only two showcases in the United States.

Slideshow

Organized by the Bemberg Foundation, based at the historic Hôtel d’Assézat in Toulouse, France, the exhibition features more than 60 works produced between the 1870s to 1930s. This is the second installment of a loan from the Bemberg Foundation, following the Cranach to Canaletto exhibition on view at the Museum from June to September 2021.  

Among the artists represented are renowned painters Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Pablo Picasso, Alfred Sisley, while Pierre Bonnard is represented by over ten remarkable examples.

Impressionism, and the movements it inspired, such as Pointillism and Fauvism, paved the way for Modernism, as early works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse in the exhibition illustrate. Monet to Matisse will feature two exclusive works not previously on view in Houston, the only other city in the U.S. to receive the collection.

“The Loing Canal” by Alfred Sisley (1884, oil on canvas)

(Bemberg Foundation)

“Portrait of the Artist’s Son Félix Dressed in a Skirt,” by Camille Pissarro (1883, oil on canvas)

(Bemberg Foundation)

“Boats on the Beach at Étretat” by Claude Monet (1883, oil on canvas)

(Bemberg Foundation)

 Additional highlights include Claude Monet’s Boats on the Beach at Étretat, 1883; Camille Pissarro’s Portrait of the Artist’s Son Felix Dressed in a Skirt, 1883; Pierre Bonnard’s Le Cannet, 1930; Edgar Degas’ Woman at a Dressing Table, 1889; and Paul Cezanne’s Mountainous Landscape near Aix, 1890-1895.

The exhibition is composed entirely of works from The Bemberg Foundation and is co-curated by Philippe Cros, the former director of the Bemberg Foundation, and Michael Brown, Ph.D., Curator of European Art at The San Diego Museum of Art. The exhibition is made possible in collaboration with Manifesto Expo.

Georges Bemberg was an Argentina-born French collector, world traveler and Harvard-trained scholar, who amassed an extraordinary collection of Western art from the end of the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Bemberg’s private collection was preserved through the Foundation.

Gift of 15 remarkable paintings by prominent American artists

 The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) announced Wednesday their receipt of a significant gift from longtime patrons James W. and Frances Gibson McGlothlin. With a total collective value of nearly $60 million, the donation includes a substantial contribution to VMFA’s expansion campaign, which will culminate in a second major wing at the museum named after the couple — the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing II — as well as 15 remarkable paintings by prominent American artists. 

"Girl in Hammock," 1894, Theodore Robinson (American, 1852–1896) Oil on canvas laid down on board.

Wikimedia Commons; Michael Altman Fine Art, NY

In June 2021, VMFA announced that the museum has undertaken an exciting $190 million expansion and renovation project, anticipated to be completed in Spring 2026. International architectural firm SmithGroup is charged with designing the 170,000-square-foot James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing II, which will include galleries for American art, African art, 21st-century art and special exhibitions, as well as a special events space that can seat up to 500 people. The project also includes 45,000-square-feet of renovations to the existing building. The total expansion, estimated to cost $365 million, is the largest expansion and campaign in VMFA’s history.

“The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has become one of this country’s premier art institutions — with one of the strongest American art collections in the U.S.,” said Jim McGlothlin. “We feel it is important that we share these incredible works of art from our collection with people from our home state of Virginia. Donating them to VMFA ensures that they will be enjoyed by visitors to the museum for generations to come.”

The McGlothlins’ recent donation comprises 15 works by American masters from the 19th and 20th centuries, including paintings by Milton Avery, Albert Bierstadt, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Marsden Hartley, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Theodore Robinson, Norman Rockwell, John Singer Sargent, John Sloan and Andrew Wyeth, as well as two pastels by Everett Shinn. Norman Rockwell’s 1971 painting, The Collector, is the first work by this beloved American artist to enter VMFA’s collection, while Andrew Wyeth’s 1973 tempera painting Ericksons is considered to be one of the artist’s greatest works.

“We are profoundly grateful to the McGlothlin family for this transformative gift of American art,” said Nyerges. “The 15 paintings will join the 75 works the McGlothlins previously donated to the museum and will enhance the VMFA’s already impressive collection of more than 2,000 works of American art.”

Since the first exhibition of works from their collection 16 years ago, Capturing Beauty: American Impressionist and Realist Paintings from the McGlothlin Collection, the McGlothlins have been generous contributors to VMFA. In 2005, the couple entrusted their expansive collection of 19th- and 20th-century American paintings, sculpture and works on paper — one of the leading private collections in this country — to VMFA, and made a $30 million gift toward the museum’s 2010 expansion which included the 165,000-square-foot James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing. In 2012, the couple established the $20 million McGlothlin Endowment for American Art to support the preservation and growth of VMFA’s American art collection.

The McGlothlins have since decided to advance their donations of artworks to VMFA, first donating William Merritt Chase’s Wounded Poacher (1878) in 2009, followed by John Singer Sargent’s The Rialto (1909) in 2014. A year later, the McGlothlins gave an astounding 73 works of art, valued at $300 million, by George Bellows, Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent, James A.M. Whistler and other artists, which have delighted VMFA’s visitors since going on display in the summer of 2015. The gift was transformative, resulting in six new galleries of American art permanently installed with the McGlothlin Collection. Their gift was key to making VMFA’s current expansion necessary. The American galleries will double in size from the current 15,000 square feet to more than 30,000 square feet in the McGlothlin Wing II.

Gifted works include:

 "Mandolin with Flowers," 1948, Milton Avery (American, 1885–1965), oil on canvas

· "Moonlight in Yosemite," n.d., Albert Bierstadt (American, born. Germany, 1830–1902), oil on canvas

· "In the Boudoir," ca. 1914, Frederick Carl Frieseke (American, 1874–1939), oil on canvas

· "Landscape with Single Cloud," 1922–23, Marsden Hartley (American, 1877–1943), oil on canvas

· "Child in Gray," 1905, George Luks (American, 1867–1933), oil on canvas

· "Evening Shower," Paris, 1892–94 Maurice Prendergast (American, born Canada, 1858–1924), oil on panel

· "Girl in Hammock," 1894, Theodore Robinson (American, 1852–1896) Oil on canvas laid down on board

· "The Collector," 1971, Norman Rockwell (American, 1894–1978), oil on canvas

· "A Venetian Woman," ca. 1880–81, John Singer Sargent (American, born Italy, 1856–1925), oil on board

· "Broadway, Late in the Afternoon, After Matinee," 1899, Everett Shinn (American, 1876–1953), pastel, charcoal, gouache, and watercolor on artist’s board Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond. Donated by United Art of Virginia, LLC as part of the James W. and Frances Gibson McGlothlin Collection, 2021.514.

Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory Services, New York

· "Steps Between House (Paris Street)," 1903, Everett Shinn (American, 1876–1953), pastel on paper  Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Donated by United Art of Virginia, LLC as part of the James W. and Frances Gibson McGlothlin Collection, 2021.515.

Travis Fullerton © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

· "Glimpse of Gloucester Trolley," 1914, John Sloan (American, 1871–1951), oil on canvas

· "Independence Square," Philadelphia, 1900, John Sloan (American, 1871–1951), oil on canvas

· "Russian Girl," 1906–07, John Sloan (American, 1871–1951), oil on canvas

The McGlothlin family also provided the funds for VMFA to acquire:

"Ericksons," 1973, Andrew Wyeth (American, 1917–2009), tempera on panel, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Purchased with funds provided by James W. and Frances Gibson McGlothlin, 2021.519.

Photo courtesy of Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory Services, New York

· "Ericksons," 1973, Andrew Wyeth (American, 1917–2009), tempera on panel

At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism

Whitney Museum of American Art

May 7, 2022, to March 2023

The Whitney Museum of American Art presents At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism, an exhibition of over sixty works by more than forty-five artists that highlights the complexity of American art produced between 1900 and 1930. The exhibition showcases how American artists responded to the realities of a rapidly modernizing period through an array of abstract styles and media. At the Dawn of a New Age features artworks drawn primarily from the Whitney’s collection, including new acquisitions and works that have not been on view at the Museum for decades. The exhibition provides a broader perspective on early twentieth-century American modernism by including well-known artists like Marsden Hartley, Oscar Bluemner, Elie Nadelman, Charles Burchfield, Aaron Douglas, and Georgia O’Keeffe, as well as groundbreaking, historically overlooked artists like Henrietta Shore, Charles Duncan, Yun Gee, Manierre Dawson, Blanche Lazzell, Ben Benn, Isami Doi, and Albert Bloch.

At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism is organized by Whitney Curator Barbara Haskell and is on view in the Museum’s eighth-floor Hurst Family galleries from May 7, 2022, to March 2023.

America’s early modernists came of age in a period marked by change and innovation. The onset of the twentieth century saw technological advancements combined with cultural shifts, including women’s suffrage and progressive political initiatives, that challenged existing social and economic norms. Against this backdrop of optimism in progress and modernity, many American artists embraced the new and experimental over the traditional and fixed by rejecting realism in favor of art that prioritized emotional experience and harmonious design.

“In the Whitney’s early days, the Museum favored realism over abstract styles,” said Curator Barbara Haskell. “It wasn’t until the mid-1970s that the Museum expanded its focus and began acquiring nonrepresentational works from the period. Gaps remain, but the Museum’s holdings of early twentieth-century modernism now rank among the collection’s strengths. By bringing together familiar icons, works that have been in storage for decades, and new acquisitions, At the Dawn of a New Age gives us an opportunity to reassess how we tell the story of this period of American art and celebrate its complexity and spirit of innovation.”

“At the Dawn of a New Age provides an opportunity to reconsider and expand interpretations of American modernism in the early 1900s through the unique lens of the Whitney’s collection,” said Jane Panetta, the Whitney’s Nancy and Fred Poses Curator and Director of the Collection. “This show presents an exciting moment for us to feature new acquisitions from pioneering artists of that time, some of whom recently entered the Whitney’s collection for the first time. We’re thrilled to bring these works into the collection as we begin to address how the Whitney can continue to build upon our important holdings from this period.”

At the Dawn of a New Age features paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, photographs, and woodcuts, revealing the variety of styles and media that artists used to express their experiences of modern life. Early explorations from well-known modernists, such as 

Georgia O’Keeffe’s Music, Pink and Blue No. 2(1918) 

and Marsden Hartley’s Forms Abstracted (1914), are presented alongside works by previously overlooked figures, in particular women and artists of color, that are critical to expanding the Museum’s representation of this period. From the flat, stylized geometries of Aaron Douglas and Isami Doi to the simplified organic abstractions of Henrietta Shore and Agnes Pelton and the Symbolist landscapes of Pamela Colman Smith and Albert Bloch, the artists featured in the exhibition channeled vanguard European art styles into a distinctly American brand of modernism.

The exhibition presents a host of works on view for the first time in decades, including 

Albert Bloch’s expressionist landscape Mountain (1916), 

Yun Gee’s Chinatown cityscape Street Scene (1926), 

and Walter Pach’s Cubist tableau Untitled (Cubist Still Life), 1914. 

Recent acquisitions featured in At the Dawn of a New Age include 

Isami Doi’s scenic linocut Moonlight (1924); Adele Watson’s coastal outcropping Untitled (Mountain Island Monk), 1931; Henrietta Shore’s nature abstraction Trail of Life (1923); and Aaron Douglas’s suite of Emperor Jones woodcuts. 

These works demonstrate the innovation and experimentation of early twentieth-century modernism and emphasize the capacity of abstraction to reflect individual responses to the changing period and the collective, groundbreaking spirit of the age.