Crystal Bridges Exhibits Trace Roots of Major Art Movements

 

The origins of American modernism, a friendship between two art legends and landscapes from throughout the Americas are among the themes to be featured in temporary exhibitions at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in 2015.

The Bentonville museum announced the exhibitions Oct. 28.

“Van Gogh to Rothko,” which includes selections from the Albright-Know Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, will be on display Feb. 21 through June 1.

It is a major highlight of the season, said curator Manuela Well-Off-Man, and consists of 75 pieces by 39 artists from the late 19th century to present, including Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko.

“What’s really special about this exhibition is that it’s almost like a survey of modern art,” she said.

The grouping traces the roots of the modernism movement, starting with post-impressionism works from 19th century European artists Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin.

During this time many American artists traveled to Europe, and Paris in particular, to experience the art world, because they heard about new, exciting things going on, Well-Off-Man said.

“They were like sponges absorbing the art culture,” she added, and the exhibit features works from artists who brought those styles and techniques back to America.

 

20th Century Art

The exhibition also will offer works from several early-20th century movements: fauvism (with works from French artist Henri Matisse), surrealism (with work from Spanish painter Salvador Dali) and cubism, and will include a large grouping of works from abstract expressionism, a post-World War II American art movement. Artists in this category include Rothko, Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell.

Well-Off-Man said one intention is   to draw connections between the styles of the European and American artists within the exhibition and also to some of the major works in Crystal Bridges’ permanent collection.

“Hopefully, you will learn where the influences our coming from,” she said.

 

Warhol and Wyeth

“Warhol’s Nature” will be on display July 4 to Oct. 5, and “Jamie Wyeth” will be July 25 to Oct. 5.

Because the two artists were friends and famously painted each other (these works are part of the groupings), the exhibitions tell a story of friendship, while also showcasing the artists individually, Well-Off-Man said.

The Warhol exhibition, borrowed from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, portrays the artist’s lifelong engagement with nature, with pieces from each decade in his career.

The Wyeth display spans six decades of his work, focusing on his contributions to the realism movement, and with works dating back to his childhood drawings. Well-Off-Man said, even in these early drawings, a viewer can “sense a special talent” in Wyeth, who came from a long line of artists.

After the Warhol and Wyeth exhibitions are complete, “Alfred H. Maurer: At the Vanguard of Modernism” will be on display Oct. 10 through Jan. 4, 2016.

Maurer is considered to be one of the first American modernists who studied avant-garde art in Paris in the 19th century.

The 70-piece exhibition, organized by the Addison Gallery, surveys his career, according to the museum. 

 

Landscape of the Americas

“From Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic: Landscape Painting in the Americas” will be on display Nov. 7 to Jan. 18, 2016.

The exhibition, made possible through a collaboration among museums in Brazil, Canada and Chicago, features about 120 oil paintings, watercolors, photographs, prints, maps, books, and three-dimensional objects, from artists throughout North America and South America in the 19th century.

Those featured include U.S. artists Albert Bierstadt, Frederic E. Church, Thomas Cole, Martin Johnson Heade, and Georgia O’Keeffe; and also Jose Maria Velasco (Mexico), Francisco Oller (Puerto Rico), and Juan Manuel Blanes (Uruguay).

Well-Off-Man said that, in addition to providing a connection to Crystal Bridges’ theme of the relationship between art and nature, the landscapes portray a shared Pan-American history, while also illuminating the differences among national identities.

“Guests have the unique opportunity to view works from Argentina to northern Canada, something you normally wouldn’t get to see here in Bentonville,” Well-Off-Man said.

 

Still Life Collaboration

Well-Off-Man said a smaller, yet still important exhibition set for next year is “American Encounters: The Simple Pleasures of Still Life,” which will be at Crystal Bridges May 16 to Sept. 14.

The exhibition is the fourth and last in a series of traveling exhibitions done in collaboration with the Louvre Museum in Paris, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago. 

Also on display in 2015 will be “Game Fishes of the United States,” April 4 to Aug. 10.

The exhibition provides examples of chromolithography from a book that was printed 1879 to 1880. According to the museum, it is a celebration of nature in American art and features 20 color plates based on sporting artist Samuel Kilbourne’s watercolor paintings, with text written by ichthyologist George Brown Goode.

The color plates that will be on display capture a number of distinctly American fish in their natural surroundings, including the striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, red snapper, pompano, and brook trout, according to the museum.

More information about 2015 exhibitions is available at crystalbridges.org.