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Masterpieces of American Art, 1770-1920: From the Detroit Institute of Arts

October 23, 2004 - January 30, 2005

 

(above: Frederic Edwin Church, Cotopaxi, 1862, oil on canvas. Collection of The Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, Gibbs-Williams Fund, Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund, Merrill Fund, Beatrice W. Rogers Fund, and the Richard A. Manoogian Fund.)

 

This fall, visitors to the Milwaukee Art Museum have an unprecedented opportunity to celebrate America's best in a visually stunning exhibition of painting and sculpture from the period in which American art was born and came into its own. Masterpieces of American Art, 1770 - 1920: From The Detroit Institute of Arts features more than 90 masterpieces by such great American artists as John Singleton Copley, John Singer Sargent, Gilbert Stuart, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Frederic Church, William Merritt Chase, Albert Bierstadt, the Peale family and Robert Henri. Organized by The Detroit Institute of Arts from its collection of American art -- one of the finest in the nation -- the exhibition explores the development of our visual history through almost two centuries. The Milwaukee Art Museum is the only Midwest venue for the exhibition. The Museum is reinstalling its own American paintings galleries to coincide with this important exhibition. (right: John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark, 1777-78, oil on canvas. Collection of The Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society purchase, Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund.)

"We are delighted to present an exhibition of this breadth that exposes the masterworks of our own nation," said Museum Director and CEO David Gordon. "Visitors will discover a unique style and definition of beauty forged during the earliest years of this country by the greats of American art."

In its relatively short history, America has produced a vibrant and diverse visual tradition of its own, with fact, pragmatism, awe and a description of place at the heart of its artistic production. European settlers in this new land sought to reinvent notions of government, religion, society and even art, as they forged a uniquely American style and definition of beauty.

 

A Closer Look at the Exhibition

The exhibition includes such iconic masterpieces as John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark, Frederic Church's Cotopaxi, and Winslow Homer's Defiance: Inviting A Shot Before Petersburg. Also featured are great examples by many other figures of American art between 1770 and 1920: still life master Raphaelle Peale; landscapists Thomas Cole and Martin Johnson Heade; sculptor Hiram Powers; genre painters George Caleb Bingham and Eastman Johnson; Philadelphia genius Thomas Eakins; American Impressionists John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, and Mary Cassatt; and Ashcan School artists Robert Henri and George Bellows, to name only a few. (right: Martin Johnson Heade, Hummingbirds and Orchids, 1880-90, oil on canvas. Collection of The Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society purchase, Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund.)

One of the strongest of American traits is our urge to define what is American. As American artists sought to create a visual national identity, they looked to both their own dreams and to tutelage from abroad. While American artists alternated between homegrown creativity and international influences, certain characteristics reappear in their art -- an adherence to truthful depiction, directness, idealism and a belief in progress.

Masterpieces of American Art, 1770 -1920 includes some of the best-known works representing the major American art movements and trends of the period, including Hudson River School and American Impressionism. From the faces of a new nation and the Colonial era to American life through the Civil War, global landscapes and the cosmopolitan trends of the later 19th century and early 20th century, the exhibition provides an extraordinary exploration of the exemplary art and artists of our own nation. The story of American art unfolds as the visitor travels through the exhibition.

 

Tour

The exhibition has toured to the National Gallery of Ireland, the Phoenix Museum of Art and the San Diego Museum of Art. After the Milwaukee Art Museum, the exhibition travels to the Frick Art and Historical Center in Pittsburgh, before returning to Detroit.

 

Organization and Publication

The exhibition is organized by The Detroit Institute of Arts and is coordinated at the Milwaukee Art Museum by Glenn Adamson, curator of the Chipstone Foundation and MAM adjunct curator. The 128-page exhibition catalogue, American Beauty, includes an essay by Graham W. J. Beal and more than 90 color photographs. The catalogue is available in the Museum Store or online.

 

Exhibition Section Descriptions

Masterpieces of American Art, 1770 - 1920: From The Detroit Institute of Arts includes some of the best-known works representing the major American art movements and trends of the period, including Hudson River School and American Impressionism. From the faces of a new nation and the Colonial era to American life through the Civil War, global landscapes and the cosmopolitan trends of the later 19th century and early 20th century, the exhibition provides an extraordinary exploration of the exemplary art and artists of our own nation. The story of American art unfolds as the visitor travels through the exhibition. Sections include:

Faces of a New Nation
 
By the late 18th century, portraiture had become the backbone of American art. Americans were interested in creating a national identity through images of themselves and their early heroes. These portraits also provide an insight into the enterprise, industriousness and civic pride of the new nation.
 
Land of Plenty
 
The still life became popular in the early 19th century. American still lifes were not as opulent as their European prototypes, nor were they as imbued with religious and moral symbolism. Here, artists practiced still life as a science, with a curiosity for the natural world and a distinctly American desire to capture real appearances.
 
From Sea to Shining Sea, and Beyond
 
By the 1830s, landscape painting had become the vehicle for depicting a national identity. Throughout the rest of the century, the depiction of the American land took a variety of forms - as mysterious and sublime wilderness, a new territory requiring scientific documentation, the pioneers' territorial and natural destiny, or as the individual's private retreat.
 
Telling Stories
 
Many artists found the lofty subject matter of traditional history painting too removed from the American experience. One connection to the past with which Americans could identify, however, was ancient Greece and Rome. Both civilizations were models for the young nation. They inspired America's political ideals, architecture, clothing and notions of beauty.
 
Of The People, By The People, For The People
 
Genre painting, generally defined as a realistic depiction of everyday life, became popular in America by the 1840s. It appealed to a broad audience who viewed the activities of common people as an appropriate subject for artists in a democracy. Narrative rather than philosophical in tone, genre paintings often depicted country scenes with sympathy and humor. Some had deeper political and social meanings; they satirized class, gender, and racial and regional divisions that had solidified in America by the early 19th century.
 
The Civil War and its Aftermath
 
The Civil War (1861-1865) brought about a radical change in the social, political and cultural life in America. While photography, for the first time, exposed the brutality of war, painters, by contrast, showed the quieter, more noble side of soldiers' lives. After the war, artistic explorations became more introspective and focused on an imagined simpler past, and the official closing of the frontier in 1890 made scenes and stories from the Old West more popular than ever.
 
The Rise of Internationalism
 
During the last quarter of the 19th century, America resurrected itself from the ashes of the Civil War and became the world's leading industrial power. It was a new era of material expansion and cosmopolitanism known as the Gilded Age. Europe had always held a special attraction for cultured Americans and artists, but at this time, they traveled abroad in record numbers. American painting was deemed "outdated." In response, ambitious, young American artists flocked to Europe, seeking both traditional training and the new styles and techniques of the avant-garde, particularly Impressionism. Their goal was to compete fully in the world cultural arena by absorbing European influences, applying them to international subjects, and creating something new and better for American art.
 
The New American Landscape
 
As American artists returned from Europe, their depictions of the American landscape changed from sublime vistas to those of a more intimate and individual approach. The realistic depiction of place became less important than conveying moods and personal expressions. American artists in France had been influenced by the poetic approach to landscape of artists painting outdoors in Barbizon, and the simplified forms and evocative power of color of the "aesthetic style." But, the greatest influence was Impressionism. However, the American version remained grounded in real appearances and solid structure rather than the radical dissolution of form central to its French counterpart.
 
The American City
 
By the opening decades of the 20th century, America was the wealthiest and most modern country in the world, and New York City had become the symbol of its financial and technological superiority. The new subway, skyscrapers, elegant department stores and a growing entertainment industry made for a bustling urban scene. At the same time, immigration had swelled the ranks of the city's poor to unprecedented numbers, and the Lower East Side became notorious for poverty, filth and overcrowding. A group of artists called "The Eight" or the "Ashcan School" captured the city's grittiness, diversity and vitality in their work. Their radicalism lay in their subjects, not their styles.

 


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