Welcome to the Amon Carter Press Room

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Receives $75,000 Digitization Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Tracy G. — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:58:50 +0000

Release date:

May 14, 2012

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art announces that it has received a $75,000 Access to the Artist Archives digitization grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The grant will allow the museum to digitize, catalog and publish online its archival collections of eight prominent American photographers of the 20th century—Carlotta Corpron (1901–1988), Nell Dorr (1893–1988), Laura Gilpin (1891–1979), Eliot Porter (1901–1990), Helen Post (1907–1979), Clara Sipprell (1885–1975), Erwin E. Smith (1886–1947) and Karl Struss (1886–1981).

These collections are comprised of 22,000 photographic prints and 200,000 negatives, manuscripts, other ephemera, books and related collections. Approximately 70 percent of the eight archives have yet to be digitized, and the proposed timeline for the effort is two years. The archives of these artists are owned by the Amon Carter, and their acquisition, beginning with Gilpin’s archive in 1979, transformed the museum into a major research institution.

“We are tremendously pleased that the NEH has awarded the Amon Carter this generous grant that will allow us to open the photography collection to the public in new ways,” says Andrew Walker, director. “Together, the works of these eight artists reflect the range of American diversity in the 20th century and the collection as a whole offers a singular view into the lives of working Americans.”

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art houses one of the country’s major collections of American photography. The holdings span the history of the photographic medium in America and include works ranging from one of the earliest daguerreotypes produced in this country to contemporary digital prints. Although gallery space is devoted to photography exhibitions that rotate several times each year, thousands of images remain in storage. Providing virtual access opens eight significant archives as a continuous resource to all audiences.

“Access to the Artist Archives is the Amon Carter’s fifth large-scale digitization initiative,” says Jana Hill, collection information and imaging manager. “NEH support for this exciting project will allow the museum to publish these rarely seen collections to our website to encourage and inspire creative and scholarly explorations into the American experience through the medium of photography.”

Not only will the grant help further the Amon Carter’s overall goal of digitizing its permanent collection, it will also have value for researchers in fields outside of art history. The museum anticipates the appeal of these historical photographs will extend across disciplines to include those interested in the American environmental movement, film, sociology and economics, visual culture and women’s history.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Offers Free Summer Storytime Program

Tracy G. — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:57:59 +0000

Release date:

May 10, 2012

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is pleased to announce the return of Storytime. This free public program for young children and their families is held every Wednesday, June 6–July 25 (except July 4), from 10:30–11:30 a.m., and brings the museum’s artworks to life through engaging children’s stories and related art activities.

“Storytime this year is all about color,” says Jessica Kennedy, public programs manager. “We invite the children to explore a different color each Wednesday and encourage families to come dressed in that day’s featured color for even more fun.”

The dates and themes are: June 6–Rockin’ Red; June 13–Outrageous Orange; June 20–Hello Yellow; June 27–Going Green; July 11–True Blue; July 18–Incredible Indigo; July 25–Very, Very Violet. Twenty-one children’s books will be read during Storytime, and every child who attends has a chance to win them all in a drawing to be held after the program concludes. Each child will be entered in the drawing once per visit. Details may be found at www.cartermuseum.org/calendar.

Reservations are not required, but parents are encouraged to call 817.989.5030 or email visitors [at] cartermuseum [dot] org for helpful instructions and parking information. Storytime is generously sponsored by Galderma Laboratories.

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is open Tuesday–Saturday from 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m. and Sunday from 12–5 p.m. Admission is always free.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Announces New Public Programs Manager

Tracy G. — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:43:28 +0000

Release date:

May 7, 2012

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is pleased to announce that Jessica Kennedy has joined its nationally recognized Education Department in the position of Public Programs Manager.

From adult programs such as gallery talks and Crafting from the Collection to family friendly events such as Family Fun Day and New Parents Tours, the Amon Carter’s diverse public programs reach more than 14,000 members of the community each year. Kennedy will implement a broad range of programming for visitors of all ages to experience the Amon Carter’s collection and special exhibitions.

“The Amon Carter has a long tradition of providing free, engaging public programs for adults and families to connect to our collection of American art,” says Stacy Fuller, director of education. “Jessica will build on this foundation, keeping participants’ favorite programs and designing new ones to attract those who may not be frequent visitors to the museum.”

Kennedy holds a master’s degree in history with a concentration in museum studies and a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Missouri—St. Louis. She has five years experience in museum education and interpretation, previously working at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art offers outstanding exhibitions and public programs for adults and children and is open Tuesday–Saturday from 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m. and Sunday from 12–5 p.m. Admission is always free.

Margi Conrads Appointed Deputy Director of Art and Research at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Tracy G. — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:12:55 +0000

Release date:

May 3, 2012

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art announced today that Margaret C. Conrads, Ph.D., will join the staff in September 2012 as its first Deputy Director of Art and Research. The announcement comes just over a year after Andrew J. Walker became the Amon Carter’s fifth director and four months after the museum’s 50th Anniversary year. Conrads comes to the Amon Carter from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., where she currently serves as the Samuel Sosland Senior Curator of American Art.

“I am thrilled to welcome Margi to the Amon Carter,” Walker says. “She is widely respected within the field of American art as a distinguished scholar and dynamic leader. She is acclaimed not only for organizing spectacular exhibitions but for the great vision and innovation she brought to the reinstallation of The Nelson-Atkins’ American collection.”

In accepting the position, Conrads says, “I’m so excited to join the Amon Carter at such an important moment in its history. It will be a privilege to work with the museum’s outstanding collections and impressive staff as the institution continues to expand its reach into the community and beyond. I am eager to get to know Fort Worth and its many great offerings.”

The strategic addition of this new position to the museum’s management team comes at a pivotal moment in its history and gives strong voice to a collection of American art that is recognized as one of the finest in the country. It also confirms the museum’s commitment and strong motivation to offering North Texas and the country the opportunity to experience the best in exhibition programming.

In an additional enhancement to the museum’s management team, Lori Eklund was named Senior Deputy Director, overseeing the outreach, collections management and operations divisions. Eklund joined the museum in 2001 as director of education and previously served as deputy director.

“With these two positions, we are linking together the excellence and quality that are hallmarks of both this institution’s collections and its programming,” Walker says. “This new direction reaffirms that the Amon Carter is among the nation’s great museums of American art and will become even more prominent on the national stage as it increases its service and commitment to the local and regional communities.”

In her role, Conrads will provide leadership and vision for the museum’s curatorial excellence, oversee the museum’s conservation program and library, and serve as staff liaison with the Board of Trustees acquisitions committee.

“Margi is a highly talented and esteemed scholar, and we are fortunate to have her join our leadership team at the Amon Carter,” commented Ruth Carter Stevenson, president of the Board. “The staff and I look forward to her vision and guidance as the museum moves into its next 50 years.”

Conrads achieved her doctorate in art history from the City University of New York Graduate Center with a concentration in American art to 1945. She received international recognition for the 2001 exhibition and catalogue Winslow Homer and the Critics: Forging a National Art in the 1870s (Princeton University Press, 2001) and was on the curatorial team and an essayist for the 2009 exhibition American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915 presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Conrads led the reinstallation and interpretive programs for a major expansion of The Nelson-Atkins’ American collection, which opened in 2009. She is the editor and a primary author of the two-volume catalogue of the museum’s American painting collection, The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins: American Paintings to 1945 (2007); and, in addition to Homer, she has published on American artists Thomas Hart Benton, George Caleb Bingham, Alexander Calder and Thomas Cole.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning and Their Circle, 1927–1942

admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:28:13 +0000

Release date:

April 2, 2012

FORT WORTH, Texas—On June 9, 2012, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning and Their Circle, 1927–1942, an exhibition that brings together more than 60 pioneering works of American modernism. Organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art, the exhibition is on view through August 19, 2012, and admission is free.

During the early 20th century, the enigmatic and charismatic John Graham (1886–1961) and his circle of New York artists, which included Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning, forged their identities and dramatically transformed conceptions of what a painting or sculpture could be. They, along with others in Graham’s orbit, such as Jackson Pollock and David Smith, played a critical role in developing and defining American modernism. American Vanguards showcases works of art from this vital period that together demonstrate the inter-connections, common sources, and shared stimuli among the members of Graham’s circle.

“Much has been written and many exhibitions organized about the most significant artists in Graham’s circle, yet surprisingly, despite Graham’s close links with so many of these artists in the evolution of American abstraction, he remains little known,” notes Brian Allen, director of The Addison. “This long-overdue exhibition rediscovers Graham and puts his art and charismatic influence in the context of his time… . This assembly of paintings and sculpture evidences the creative energy of New York painting and sculpture during this crucial period and fosters greater understanding of the associations formed by the leading artists of this formidable generation.”

Graham was a painter, theoretician and mystic whose advanced ideologies ultimately affected the course of American modernism. Born in the Ukraine to aristocratic parents, Graham seemed an unlikely figure to be such a pivotal force in American art in the 1920s and 1930s. He studied law in prerevolutionary Russia, served in the czarist cavalry, and was a counter-revolutionary imprisoned by the Bolsheviks, all before arriving in the United States in 1920. Settling in New York where he studied with Jan Matulka, Graham developed close associations and friendships with Davis and Gorky, who were together so constantly that they were known as “the Three Musketeers.” The trio was soon joined by de Kooning who always credited the “Musketeers” with developing his understanding of modernism. To these artists, Graham was a vital conduit of knowledge regarding the latest developments in European modernism. Graham’s inner circle grew to include David Smith, as well as Dorthy Dehner, Adolph Gottlieb, Lee Krasner, Edgar Levy and Jackson Pollock— a cross-section of some of the most remarkable American artists of the period.

Graham’s influence was disseminated further through his seminal text, Systems and Dialectics of Art (1937), which affirmed the American modernist belief about art—that it is a creative process of abstraction, it is a form of communication independent of any imitation, and it reveals the unknown. By 1942, the visionary Graham was organizing a landmark exhibition at the McMillen Gallery, French and American Painting, that for one of the first times featured Davis, de Kooning, Krasner and Pollock, alongside European modern masters such as Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso. Although French and American Painting was largely forgotten, it was pivotal in launching the career of the young Pollock, whom Graham was credited with discovering.

“Visitors to the Amon Carter are familiar with the work of Stuart Davis; however, this exhibition puts his work in a new light alongside other modernists not represented in our collection,” says Andrew Walker, director. “We hope that our visitors will take advantage of the opportunity to see these great works and gain a sense of how these artists impacted the history of American art.”

Organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, the exhibition and publication are generously supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and The Dedalus Foundation, Inc., and by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities. Curated by scholars William C. Agee, Irving Sandler and Karen Wilkin, the exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue co-published by the Addison and Yale University Press. Following its run in Fort Worth, American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning and Their Circle, 1927–1942 will be on view at the Addison from September 21 through December 31, 2012.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Amon Carter currently offers this free public program.

Thursday, June 21, 2012
6–7 pm
The Four Musketeers of Modernism Lecture
Karen Wilkin, Independent Curator and Art Critic

In 1930s New York, innovative artists such as Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning and many others forged their identities as artists, transforming conceptions of what a work of art could be. The enigmatic John Graham was the center of this circle of inventive young artists and served as a mentor and source of information. This lecture examines the complex interrelationships among these adventurous artists during their formative years and the evidence of dialogue and cross-fertilization apparent in their work of the period.

Because seating is limited, reservations are required. Call 817.989.5030 or email visitors [at] cartermuseum [dot] org (visitors@cartermuseum.org) to register.

This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Announces New Interpretation Manager

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:38:23 +0000

Release date:

January 30, 2012

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is pleased to announce that Jenna Madison has joined its nationally recognized Education Department in the newly created position of Interpretation Manager.

Over the last decade, the Amon Carter has developed programs to make its collection relevant to the museum’s diverse audiences. Interpretive resources such as audio tours and family guides have been widely used by guests of all ages, and Madison will continue to produce innovative methods that enhance how visitors connect with art.

“With her background in artwork interpretation and her passion for sharing art with a variety of audiences, Jenna is the perfect fit to work across departments to design new opportunities for our visitors,” says Stacy Fuller, director of education.

Madison has eight years of experience as a museum educator specializing in interpretation, previously holding positions at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She has a bachelor’s degree in art history from the Metropolitan State College of Denver and a master’s degree in art history from San Jose State University.

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art offers outstanding exhibitions and public programs for all ages and is open Tuesday–Saturday from 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday until 8:00 p.m. and Sunday from 12–5 p.m. Admission is always free.

Four Magnificent Works by John Singer Sargent on View at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

admin — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:14:43 +0000

Release date:

January 23, 2012

FORT WORTH, Texas—On March 11, 2012, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents four masterworks by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), the preeminent expatriate painter of the late 19th century. In Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark, four renowned works from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute will travel to Texas for the first time. The exhibition is on view through June 17; admission is free.

Sargent’s legendary canvas Fumée d’Ambre Gris (Smoke of Ambergris) is among the four works in the exhibition. Created in 1880, this magnificent oil on canvas stands among the most remarkable of all the artist’s paintings, highly prized for its ambiguous narrative and exquisite color scheme of cream on white. The exhibition also includes Portrait of Carolus-Duran (1879), Sargent’s spirited portrait of his Parisian art instructor Carolus-Duran (1837–1917), as well two entrancing scenes from Sargent’s excursions to Italy, A Venetian Interior (1880–82) and A Street in Venice (1880–82).

“All four paintings display an informality and unconventional lack of finish, forecasting Sargent’s emergence as a modern painter,” says Rebecca Lawton, curator of paintings and sculpture at the Amon Carter. “Together, they also offer profound insight into the development of Sargent’s singular talent between 1879 and 1882, before he reached the age of 30.”

In 1910, Robert Sterling Clark—entrepreneur, soldier, explorer and an heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune—settled in Paris and began collecting works of art, an interest he inherited from his parents. When he married Francine Clary in 1919, she joined him in what became a shared, lifelong passion.

The Clarks’ collection grew exponentially over the ensuing years. Following World War II, they worked to establish a public museum to house their holdings, and in 1955 the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute opened in Williamstown, Mass. The Clarks possessed a discerning eye for collecting, and many of the works they accumulated are today iconic.

“It’s a true honor for us to exhibit these tremendous works amongst our collection,” says Andrew Walker, director. “Sargent was one of the most influential American artists living and working abroad in the 19th century, and these four works are among his best, defining his ‘youthful genius.’ We encourage our visitors to take advantage of this unique opportunity to see these paintings; they are spectacular.”

Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark is presented at the museum as part of a joint program with the Kimbell Art Museum, which will concurrently show the exhibition The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Clark. Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark and The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Clark were organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Amon Carter offers these free public programs.

Thursday, March 29, 2012
6–7 p.m.
3 Under 30 Gallery Talk
Rebecca Lawton, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Get inspired as you learn about the great works created by Frederic Edwin Church, Arthur Dove and John Singer Sargent during their twenties. No reservations are required.

Sunday, April 22, 2012
1–4 p.m.
Young Masters Family Funday

Discover artists on display at the Amon Carter who created masterpieces at a young age, and then have your young artists create inspired artworks of their own! No reservations are required.

About the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

The Clark is one of the few major art museums that also serves as a leading international center for research and scholarship. The Clark presents public and education programs and organizes groundbreaking exhibitions that advance new scholarship, and its research and academic programs include an international fellowship program and conferences. Its 140-acre campus in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts includes Stone Hill Center, designed by Tadao Ando and opened in 2008, which houses galleries, meeting and classroom facilities, and the Williamstown Art Conservation Center. The Clark, together with Williams College, America’s foremost liberal arts college, sponsors one of the nation’s leading master’s programs in art history.

Charles M. Russell’s Finest Watercolors on View at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art Beginning in February 2012

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:14:21 +0000

Release date:

December 19, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—On February 11, 2012, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents more than 100 of the finest and best-preserved watercolors by Charles M. Russell (1864–1926) in the special exhibition Romance Maker: The Watercolors of Charles M. Russell. Never before have so many of Russell’s singular depictions of the Old West been brought together. The exhibition is on view through May 13, 2012; admission is free.

“Charles Russell is recognized today as a leading artist of the Old West,” says Dr. Rick Stewart, curator of the exhibition and former Amon Carter director and curator of western paintings and sculpture. “The body of work on view in this exhibition represents the most memorable watercolors he created during his lifetime, placing him in the upper tier of American watercolorists at the turn of the 20th century.”

Russell created approximately 3,000 works of art in his lifetime—paintings, watercolors, drawings and sculpture. He turned out roughly 1,100 watercolors; thus, fully one-third of Russell’s artistic output was in the watercolor medium. His watercolors, as well as his mastery of the medium, have never been examined in depth. In Romance Maker, his works are studied in the larger context of watercolor in America from the Civil War to the late 1920s.

“The American watercolor movement—both amateur and professional—came to full fruition during Russell’s formative years as an artist during the 1880s and 1890s,” Stewart says. “The rapid rise of watercolor painting actually made it possible for a young, untutored artist like Russell to find his own way, even within the context of an isolated frontier society.”

At age 16, Russell set out from his home in St. Louis for Montana Territory, where he initially gained valuable experience as an apprentice hunter and trapper. Within a few years, he began working as a cowboy on the great open ranges of the Judith Basin and Milk River country. Whether he was working the roundups, night-herding horses and cattle, or watching his fellow punchers breaking broncos, he never stopped sketching the scenes he encountered in the vast, wide-open spaces of Big Sky Country. He visited many Indian encampments as far north as the High River in Alberta, Canada, and learned to converse with American Indians in sign language to acquire knowledge and understanding of their culture. Before long he was famous throughout the territory as “The Cowboy Artist,” and among the Indians he was known as “The Picture Man.” In 1893, after 11 years on the range, Russell gave up cowpunching to devote the rest of his life to making art.

“Initially, Russell had a great concern for historic detail and collected artifacts to be used in his work,” Stewart says. “However, as he grew older and his fame increased, his work began to show more romantic overtones with a heightened sense of nostalgia for the frontier he had known as a young man. He had experienced the West as it had once been, and he lamented its passing. The wilderness was rapidly shrinking, and animals like the grizzly bear and mountain sheep were becoming endangered. He had witnessed the destruction of traditional American Indian life by the white man, and his own way of life as a cowboy on the open range had become a thing of the past. Vivid subjects culled from his own youthful experiences were fused with the power of his artistic imagination to create unforgettable images of the mythic American frontier.”

In addition to Russell’s watercolors, the exhibition will include a special section created by the Amon Carter’s paper conservator Jodie Utter devoted to the technical aspect of his work. Actual studio materials such as his paints, brushes and his last watercolor palette will be on display. A 140-page catalogue written by Stewart will be on sale in the Museum Store + Café. During the run of the Amon Carter’s exhibition, the Sid Richardson Museum in Fort Worth will also display a selection of Russell’s watercolors.

“We’re delighted to ‘get back to our roots’ with this spectacular Russell exhibition,” says Andrew Walker, director of the museum. “Many of the museum’s visitors are familiar with Russell’s oil paintings and sculpture; however, his work in watercolor isn’t as well-known. We look forward to educating our audiences about Russell’s remarkable talents in this notoriously difficult medium.”

Organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the exhibition and publication are generously supported by BNSF Railway, the Sid Richardson Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Trevor Rees-Jones, the Erwin E. Smith Foundation, the Lakeside Foundation, and the Peters Family Art Foundation. Following its run in Fort Worth, Romance Maker: The Watercolors of Charles M. Russell will be on view at the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Mont., from June 15–September 15, 2012.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Amon Carter offers these free public programs.

Thursday, February 23, 2012, 6–7 p.m.
Charlie Goes to Hollywood: Making Myth on the Celluloid Trail
Lecture
Dr. Rick Stewart, Former Director and Curator of Western Paintings and Sculpture, Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Discover the romance and myth of Charles M. Russell’s art as echoed on the big screen and in popular culture during the early 1920s. After the lecture, Dr. Stewart will sign copies of his new book Romance Maker: The Watercolors of Charles M. Russell.

Because seating is limited, reservations are required. Call 817.989.5030 or email visitors [at] cartermuseum [dot] org (visitors@cartermuseum.org) to register.

Saturday, March 24, 2012
10:30 a.m.–4:15 p.m.
Wild West Double Feature
Film Screening
Film introductions by Dr. Kylo-Patrick Hart, Department Chair and Professor, Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media at Texas Christian University

Consider America’s cultural depiction of the West through visual art and cinema while watching the family friendly film Rango (PG; 2011), followed by the spaghetti western classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (NR; 1966). Come for one of the films or stay for both!
Double Feature schedule:
10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Rango
12:30–1 p.m. Refreshments
1–4:15 p.m. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Because seating is limited, reservations are required. Call 817.989.5030 or email visitors [at] cartermuseum [dot] org (visitors@cartermuseum.org) to register. This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Saturday, May 5, 2012
10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Lay It on Thick: Russell’s Watercolors
Adult Workshop
Jodie Lee Utter, Conservator of Works on Paper, Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Examine the traditional and unconventional watercolor techniques of Charles M. Russell, then try your hand at watercolor wash and brush techniques.

Because seating is limited, reservations are required. Call 817.989.5030 or email visitors [at] cartermuseum [dot] org (visitors@cartermuseum.org) to register.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Receives NEA Grant to Support Groundbreaking Photography Exhibition

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:20:21 +0000

Release date:

December 1, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art announces it has received a $68,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support a groundbreaking exhibition, titled Color!, that provides the first major analysis of the creation, transformation, realization, and implementation of fine art color photography in the United States. The museum is the recipient of one of 863 NEA grants totaling $22.543 million across the country.

“Art Works is the guiding principle at the NEA,” says agency Chairman Rocco Landesman. “And I’m pleased to see that principle represented through the 863 Art Works-funded projects. These projects demonstrate the imaginative and innovative capacities of artists and arts organizations to enhance the quality of life in their communities.”

The Amon Carter’s Color! exhibition, scheduled to open in September 2013, tells the vivid tale of photographers’ longstanding preoccupation with color; the steady evolution of how photographers developed and used the medium; and the eventual widespread embrace of color photography as an essential tool for documenting and examining people, societies, cultures, and the natural and physical worlds.

“Receiving the NEA grant is a privilege and an honor,” says Andrew Walker, director. “The support will help us create an exhibition that will engage, educate and provide meaningful arts experiences for our diverse audiences.”

The Amon Carter has an active photography program with one of the country’s largest and most important collections of American photographs. The museum devotes two galleries to the display of photographs year-round, and its collection comprises more than 45,000 exhibition-quality photographic prints by more than 700 photographers covering the chronological history of the medium. Additionally, the museum is the repository of the artist archives of Carlotta Corpron, Nell Dorr, Laura Gilpin, Eliot Porter, Erwin E. Smith and Karl Struss.

For a complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support, please visit the NEA website at arts.gov.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art’s 2012 Special Exhibition Schedule

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:53:16 +0000

Release date:

November 29, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—Amon Carter Museum of American Art Director Andrew Walker has announced the special exhibition schedule for 2012. The year opens with watercolor paintings by Charles M. Russell, one of the greatest artists of the American West. Spring brings an intimate show featuring four works by John Singer Sargent, and paintings and sculpture depicting the origins of Abstract Expressionism fill the galleries this summer. Rounding out the 2012 season is a unique exhibition from The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., that presents a trove of American masterworks from the late 19th and 20th centuries.

“The exciting year ahead tells the story of American art with an exhibition schedule that begins with the work of Charles M. Russell and leads us through mid-20th-century modernism,” says Walker. “Visitors will recognize many of the artists’ names, including Stuart Davis, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper and John Singer Sargent, but the artwork will give a fresh perspective into the social and cultural movements of our country from 1845 to 1968.”

SPECIAL EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
Romance Maker: The Watercolors of Charles M. Russell
February 11–May 13, 2012

More than 100 of the finest and best-preserved watercolors by Charles M. Russell (1864–1926) will be featured in this special exhibition. Never before have so many of these singular depictions of the Old West been brought together. Russell’s advice to a fellow artist to “sinch your saddle on romance” defined his work, where vivid subjects culled from his own youthful experiences were fused with the power of his artistic imagination to create unforgettable images of the mythic American frontier.

Romance Maker: The Watercolors of Charles M. Russell is organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. The exhibition and publication are generously supported by BNSF Railway, the Peters Family Art Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Trevor Rees-Jones, the Sid Richardson Foundation and the Erwin E. Smith Foundation.

Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark
March 11–June 17, 2012

Four spectacular paintings by John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) on view in Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark are part of the renowned collection of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass. Sterling Clark’s discerning eye led him to acquire several works by Sargent, including the monumental painting Fumée d’Ambre Gris, which Clark purchased in 1914. Though intimate in scale, the exhibition provides insight into a remarkably talented young artist who achieved international acclaim by the time he turned 30.

Sargent’s Youthful Genius: Paintings from the Clark was organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass.

American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning and Their Circle,
1927–1942
June 9, 2012–August 19, 2012

During the early 20th century, the enigmatic and charismatic John Graham (1886–1961) and his circle of New York artists, which included Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning, forged their identities and dramatically transformed conceptions of what a painting or sculpture could be. They, along with others in Graham’s orbit, such as Jackson Pollock and David Smith, played a critical role in developing and defining American modernism. American Vanguards showcases more than 60 works of art from this vital period that demonstrate the inter-connections, common sources, and shared stimuli among the members of Graham’s circle.

American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning and Their Circle, 1927–1942 was organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Mass. Generous support for this exhibition has been provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and by the Dedalus Foundation. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

To See As Artists See: American Art from The Phillips Collection
October 6, 2012–January 6, 2013

Founded by Duncan Phillips in 1918, The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., opened to the public in 1921 as America’s first museum of modern art. To See as Artists See is the first large-scale, traveling presentation of The Phillips’ celebrated collection of American art, chronicling the broad scope and richness of its holdings from 1850 to 1960. This landmark show featuring about 100 masterworks by more than 63 artists traces American art from the birth of the modernist spirit at the end of the 19th century through postwar American painting in the mid-2oth century. An astute collector, Phillips assembled much of his collection by patronizing contemporary artists, often buying a representative selection of their work. Because of the collection’s growth, in 1930 Phillips chose to give the entire 1896 house built by his parents to the museum, allowing visitors to encounter the art within the intimate spaces of his boyhood home.

The major paintings included in To See as Artists See celebrate the very best of late 19th-and 20th-century American art and draw fascinating parallels to the Amon Carter’s permanent collection. Amon Carter visitors will find familiar names among the artists in the exhibition, including Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Thomas Eakins, Marsden Hartley, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, John Marin and Georgia O’Keeffe. The exhibition was organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Announces Major 50th Anniversary Acquisition by Mary Cassatt

admin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:11:53 +0000

Release date:

October 21, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—To mark its 50th Anniversary, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art announces that it has acquired an important painting by Mary Cassatt, Woman Standing, Holding a Fan, created in 1878–79. The work is one of only two known canvases painted by the artist almost entirely in the medium of distemper and represents a key moment in her transformation into an Impressionist.

“A great Cassatt painting has eluded us until now,” says Andrew Walker, director of the Amon Carter. “With her contemporaries John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler, Cassatt was one of the most influential American artists living and working abroad in the 19th century; so naturally, we are thrilled to have one of her paintings in our collection. It is particularly rewarding that the work is unique in scale and breathtaking in its execution.”

Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) created the painting during a period of intense collaboration with French artist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) who invited her to exhibit with the Impressionists at the group’s fourth exhibition in 1879. Cassatt was the only American in the group, and with Marie Bracquemond (1841–1916) and Berthe Morisot (1841–1895), she became known as one of the “trois grandes dames” of Impressionism. In recognition of her contributions to the arts, France awarded her the Légion d’honneur in 1904.

While she is known primarily for portraiture, Cassatt explored radical new styles and techniques to represent the modern world while working with Degas. Both artists were fascinated with natural and artificial illumination, along with the profound foreshortening and cropping of silhouetted figures. They also shared an interest in matte surfaces and the sketchy use of dry, chalky pigments, such as pastel and distemper, a medium in which pigments are mixed with water and glue.

“Cassatt’s alliance with Degas, grounded in mutual admiration, produced some of the most closely linked and innovative art of the late 19th century,” says Rebecca Lawton, curator of paintings and sculpture at the Amon Carter. “Woman Standing is a perfect example of this. Cassatt, like many of her contemporaries, was fascinated by Japanese art. She devised compositional strategies by studying Japanese prints, learning how to depict character through posture and gesture and how to evoke an entire world using an economy of means.

“Her palette in this work is especially striking with the wonderfully harmonious arrangement of subtle tones for the rug contrasted with the almost acid-green accents in the dress. You get an immediate and palpable sense of the artist’s hand by examining the rapid brushwork. You see Cassatt experimenting with distemper, a challenging, quick-drying, hard-to-maneuver medium.”

Not only is the painting important to the study of American art, but it also opens avenues for conservation research, according to Claire Barry, director of conservation. “The work reveals Cassatt’s innovative spirit as a painter,” says Barry. “It’s compelling to delve into her rare use of distemper. Research into her work with this aqueous medium, by itself or in combination with other chalky mediums, such as pastel on canvas, is of great interest to conservators. It promises to reveal fascinating new insights into the diversity of Cassatt’s painting techniques.”

There are intriguing elements of mystery surrounding Woman Standing. Its first known owner was the celebrated art dealer and collector Ambroise Vollard. After leaving Vollard’s hands, the painting remained unknown to scholars until 1996, when it surfaced on the art market after residing for many years in a private French collection. Since then, the painting has been exhibited and published three times, but its place within Cassatt’s career and studio practice is not thoroughly understood. Its panel-like format suggests that it may have been conceived as a decorative scheme and thus belongs to a broader program of decorative ideas that were being discussed by the Impressionists in the late 1870s.

“I’ve been fascinated by this painting since it appeared in the 1998 Cassatt retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago,” says Walker, who worked on the exhibition. “When I became director of the Amon Carter earlier this year, it was quite clear to me that this was the right painting to acquire in commemoration of the museum’s 50th Anniversary and to honor board president Ruth Carter Stevenson who has long admired Cassatt’s work.”

Woman Standing, Holding a Fan is currently on view in the second-floor paintings and sculpture galleries.

About Mary Cassatt (1844–1926)

Born in Pittsburgh into an old, prosperous Pennsylvania family, Mary Cassatt received her primary artistic education at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, which she entered in 1860. When she was 22, Cassatt went abroad, studying in Paris with renowned French masters that included Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) and Thomas Couture (1815–1879); by the mid-1870s she had settled in France permanently. Her friendships with Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) coincided with a transition in her work toward the dynamic brushwork and high-keyed colors of Impressionism.

Cassatt devoted herself to portraiture—most frequently depicting women and children who were family and friends. The French Impressionists invited her to participate in their 1879 exhibition; thereafter, she moved comfortably within their circle, actively exhibiting and selling her paintings, pastels and prints. Around this time she also began producing etchings and drypoints, which would ultimately number more than 200. The Amon Carter also houses four of Cassatt’s prints.

Although the vigorous modernist movement emerged well before her death, Cassatt never approved of abstract art, which lacked the finish and careful methodology that she herself practiced. Failing eyesight plagued her in her later years, and she died in France at age 82.
 

About Ruth Carter Stevenson (b. 1923)

Daughter of museum founder Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), Ruth Carter Stevenson is the guiding force behind the development of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. She has been president of the board of trustees since the museum was established in 1961, and it was she who engaged Philip Johnson (1906–2005) to design the original building, two subsequent additions and the 2001 expansion. She has personally helped in the formation of the museum’s collection with direct donations and energetic support of acquisitions through the Amon G. Carter Foundation; since 1982, she has also served as president of the foundation.

Lori Eklund Promoted to Deputy Director at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

admin — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:18:51 +0000

Release date:

September 21, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—Amon Carter Museum of American Art Director Andrew Walker announced today that Lori Eklund has been promoted to Deputy Director. In this expanded role, she will oversee the museum’s Education, Exhibition Design, Facilities, Information Technology, Installation and Prep, Publications, Public Information, Registration, Retail, and Security Departments.

“Over the course of the last decade, Lori has expertly supported the Amon Carter’s mission to collect, preserve and exhibit the finest examples of American art,” says Walker. “Under her leadership, the museum has expanded its innovative educational initiatives, exhibitions and publications devoted to the study of American art.”

Eklund began her tenure in 2001 as Director of Education. She was promoted to Director of Outreach in 2004 and has served as Chief Operations Officer since 2007. Prior to joining the Amon Carter, Eklund worked in the education departments of the El Paso Museum of Art and the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. Eklund holds a B.A. in visual art education and an M.A. in art history from the University of Kansas.

“Over the years I have been fortunate to participate in every area of museum programming and to witness Mr. Carter’s legacy firsthand,” says Eklund. “I’m very proud of the museum’s growth and the meaningful experiences we provide for our audience.”

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Presents Dynamic Visions of City and Sea in John Marin: Modernism at Midcentury this November

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:07:40 +0000

Release date:

August 3, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—On November 5, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents the work of one of America’s foremost modernists, John Marin (1870–1953), in the special exhibition John Marin: Modernism at Midcentury. On view from November 5, 2011, through January 8, 2012, the exhibition covers the last 20 years of Marin’s career, from 1933 until his death in 1953. With more than 60 paintings, this is the first in-depth examination of Marin’s work in over 20 years. Admission is free.

Among the most widely acclaimed artists of the early 20th century, Marin was consistently praised by critics for his distinctive approach to modernism, the bold originality and the authentic “Americaness” of his work. Writing in 1932, The New Yorker literary critic Lewis Mumford considered Marin “the most significant and poignant and accomplished landscape painter of his generation in America.” Roughly 20 years later, at the time of Marin’s memorial exhibition held in New York in 1954, the critic Robert Rosenblum astutely noted, “He stands in full center of the major currents of American Art … he parallels, even prophesies, abstract-expressionist trends.”

John Marin: Modernism at Midcentury examines the artist’s modernist vision as it developed during the last decades of his life. For Marin, the 20-year span between 1933 and 1953, a period bracketed by the Great Depression and the decade following World War II, was a time to position his legacy within the grand narrative of art and to reaffirm the validity of American avant-garde, the ambitious, home-grown experiment upon which he had staked his more than 50-year career.

“This exhibition provides fresh insight into Marin’s late works, allowing visitors to appreciate how the abstract properties that had always been a feature of his art underwent a major transformation in the last 20 years of his life,” says Debra Bricker Balken, curator of the exhibition and author of the accompanying catalogue. “During this final period, the artist’s longstanding signature motifs, Manhattan and Maine, became deeply intertwined as he uncovered and fused their corresponding structures, mining each locale for metaphorical associations.”

Beginning in 1914, Marin began spending summers in Maine and drew inspiration from the state’s varied geography—forested mountains, picturesque towns, misty harbors and rolling seas. In 1933, he discovered Cape Split, a remote and sparsely settled northern peninsula in Pleasant Bay; and in 1934, he began living part of each year there in a house “so close to the water I almost feel at times that I am on a boat,” he said. This new location proved hugely liberating and revelatory for the artist. Immersed within “the spirit of the Cape,” even in winter while residing at his home in Cliffside, New Jersey, Marin confronted the forces of nature as never before.

As the exhibition unfolds, Marin’s late career is revealed as a masterful phase of experimentation, one that encompassed a renewed enthusiasm for painting in oil and a more rugged handling of watercolor.

“Marin’s talent, prodigious memory and his unfettered enthusiasm for both Cape Split and the landscape near his New Jersey home inspired him to produce an innovative synthesis of watercolor and oil painting,” says Balken. “Working vigorously, he explored the symbiotic relationship between the two mediums, learning to accentuate the tactile possibilities of each and to translate the fluidity and directness of watercolor to the medium of oil and, conversely, the depth and solidarity of oil to the medium of watercolor without sacrificing its appealing luminosity.”

John Marin: Modernism at Midcentury has been co-organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, and brings together important loans from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as from many other institutions and private collections. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The accompanying catalogue, written by Balken and produced by Yale University Press, provides insight into Marin’s work from this period within the context of contemporary critical discourse. A hardcover and softcover catalogue will be on sale in the Museum Store + Café.

“We are delighted to host this exhibition of John Marin’s late paintings at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art,” says Andrew Walker, director of the museum. “It’s a great opportunity for our visitors to become better acquainted with one of the leading figures in modern art of the United States. I think even those familiar with Marin’s work will find the exhibition tremendously interesting, invigorating and insightful.”

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Amon Carter offers these free public programs.

Saturday, November 5, 10:30 a.m.
Stop, Look, and Learn: John Marin
Adult Workshop

Hit the refresh button, and discover how to slow down and connect to modern paintings by John Marin during this interactive adult workshop. Because seating is limited, reservations are required. Email visitors [at] cartermuseum [dot] org or call 817.989.5030 to register.

Saturday, December 10, 10:30 a.m.
The Secret Life of Lobsters
Book Club

View John Marin’s paintings of the Maine coastline, and discuss the big business teeming underneath the sea by reading Trevor Corson’s book The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean. Because seating is limited, reservations are required. Email visitors [at] cartermuseum [dot] org or call 817.989.5030 to register.

Guided tours for this special exhibition occur at 3:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. No reservations are required.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Announces New Store Manager and Associate Registrar

admin — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:47:23 +0000

Release date:

August 2, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is pleased to announce that John Reilly has joined its staff as Museum Store + Café Manager and Ross Auerbach is the new Associate Registrar.

Reilly is responsible for the vision and long-term operations of the Museum Store + Café, which underwent an extensive transformation in 2010 with the addition of a coffee and snack bar, expanded children’s section, local handmade jewelry and artistic home décor items. Reilly has 17 years of museum store management and customer service experience as well as more than 10 years with Gump’s, a luxury gift, jewelry and home décor retailer. He will focus on offering visitors interesting new products and a pleasant shopping experience in addition to improving the museum’s online store presence.

“We’re very happy that John has joined the Amon Carter staff,” says Lori Eklund, chief operations officer. “He has extensive retail experience from five Northern California museums, and I think our visitors will love the innovation he brings to the Museum Store + Café.”

Auerbach joins the Collections Department with experience from private collections, the Anne Frank Center USA, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and the Yale University Art Gallery. He is responsible for overseeing the storage of the museum’s permanent collection and moving artwork for exhibition installation, photography, conservation examination and research. In addition to assisting with the physical care of the Amon Carter’s collection, he will coordinate loans, acquisitions and research requests.

“The experience that Ross brings to the Amon Carter has already been a great asset to the Collections Department in the short time he has been here,” says Marci Caslin, registrar. “We look forward to him continuing to be a vital part of our team.”

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is celebrating its 50th Anniversary throughout 2011 with outstanding exhibitions and public programs and is open Tuesday–Saturday from 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m. and Sunday from 12–5 p.m. Admission is always free.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Launches Photo Contest August 1

admin — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:23:51 +0000

Release date:

July 20, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art houses one of the country’s major collections of American photographs. Now, members of the community are invited to submit their own great American photographs of family and friends enjoying the museum; the images will be posted on the Amon Carter’s Facebook page. The free contest will run for one month, from August 1-31, 2011. TCU Professor of Art Photography and Guest Judge Luther Smith will select the winning photographs, which will be used in various promotional and educational applications.

“Being a part of Fort Worth for fifty years means that the museum has the pleasure of hearing from adults who fondly remember visiting the Amon Carter as school children and are now spending time in the galleries with their own families,” says Andrew Walker, director. “We hope the photo contest will encourage our visitors and members, both young and old, to share photographs of their museum experiences.”
The photo contest is open to everyone and offers three age categories for photograph submission: ages 12 and under, ages 13–18, and ages 19 and over. A grand- prize winner as well as two runners-up will be selected in each age category to receive museum memberships; the first-place winners also receive $100 cash!

The Amon Carter is looking for photographs that depict the visitor’s museum experience. The images will be judged on creativity, photographic quality and how well the spirit of the museum is featured. Children and adults are invited to share their photographs of the museum, from inside the galleries (where permitted) or outdoors. People, art, architecture—whatever best represents the Amon Carter Museum of American Art to each participant—are encouraged as photographic subjects.

Those interested in participating should first read the rules at cartermuseum.org. Photographs should be emailed to webmaster [at] cartermuseum [dot] org with the photographer’s name, age and telephone contact information before the August 31 deadline. Winners will be announced in September on the museum’s website and Facebook page.

The Amon Carter is celebrating its 50th Anniversary throughout 2011 with outstanding exhibitions and public programs and is open Tuesday–Saturday from 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m. and Sunday from 12–5 p.m. Admission is always free.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Announces New Online Collection Database

admin — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:26:55 +0000

Release date:

July 18, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art announces it has recently launched a digital collection database, which includes more than 7,500 artworks from the museum’s permanent collection. Easily searchable by artist, artwork or medium, the database can be accessed from the museum’s website at www.cartermuseum.org/custom.

The process to create the digital database began in 2009, when the museum received a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to photograph and catalog the works on paper collection. Because the painting and sculpture collection was previously cataloged and digitized, the museum focused its efforts on its 7,000 watercolors, prints and drawings. The museum completed digitization of this area of its collection in December 2010.

Also in 2010, the museum received a $150,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to digitize and catalog more than 25,000 photographs. Work began on this initiative in late 2010, and currently more than 2,500 photographs are now digitized, cataloged and entered into the collection database. The museum anticipates that this phase of the digitization project will be complete next summer.
“We have more than 250,000 works in our collection, but many are rarely exhibited and never seen by the public,” says Andrew Walker, director of the museum. “This new database makes our collection more accessible and allows us to better serve our diverse audiences—artists, scholars, students and art enthusiasts around the world can now look at artworks in our collection for research, scholarship or pure enjoyment. Because we are one of only a few museums in the nation that is dedicated to American art, this is a significant accomplishment.”

As artworks are photographed and cataloged, they will automatically be added to the searchable database.

The Amon Carter has also updated the design of its website says Will Gillham, director of publications. “Our website needed to be redesigned to complement our new graphic identity; but, more importantly, improvements were needed to better serve our visitors. The improvement is tremendous—the site is intuitive and much easier to navigate.”

Visitors to the site will also find an enhanced Museum Store + Café page, which is continually updated to reflect the new products in the store.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Invites Community to ‘50 Fest’ Celebration on August 13

admin — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:53:36 +0000

Release date:

June 15, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—In honor of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art’s 50th Anniversary, the entire community is invited to a fun-filled, free celebration called 50 Fest on Saturday, August 13 from 5:30–9 p.m. at the museum. Outside on the plaza, guests will be treated to food, drinks and the toe-tapping music of two Austin-based bands. All ages are encouraged to join in and become a part of museum history.

“For an institution like the Amon Carter that has been a vibrant part of Fort Worth culture for five decades, throwing a party for the whole town seems a fitting tribute during our 50th year,” says Andrew Walker, director. “We invite all our neighbors to come and see our remarkable collection of American art, while enjoying a fun summer’s evening on the museum’s front porch.”

The Marshall Ford Swing Band kicks off 50 Fest. This quartet delights audiences with its upbeat western swing, guitar stylings and vocals. They will be followed by award-winning Del Castillo, a six-man band combining eclectic Latin rock, flamenco and blues with both Spanish and English vocals.

American picnic fare including hot dogs, chips and dessert from Curly’s Frozen Custard, a Fort Worth favorite, will be offered to guests. In addition to refreshments, there will be hula hoops and bubbles for more outdoor fun, along with photo booths where guests can pose for a souvenir of the celebration. No anniversary party is complete without cake; visitors will have the opportunity to vote on their favorite Amon Carter–themed confection designed by local pastry chefs.

The extended gallery hours for 50 Fest (until 9 p.m.) will allow guests plenty of time to visit all their favorite Amon Carter artworks. Special art-exploration guides have been created for adults and children to use while inside the galleries, and docents will be stationed throughout the museum to enrich the experience.
For helpful information about 50 Fest parking and accessibility, please call 817.989.5030 or email visitors [at] cartermuseum [dot] org. The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is celebrating its 50th Anniversary throughout 2011 with outstanding exhibitions and public programs and is open Tuesday–Saturday from 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m. and Sunday from 12–5 p.m. Admission is always free.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Honors Military Personnel by Participating in the Blue Star Museums Program

admin — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:52:31 +0000

Release date:

May 25, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art announces today that it will honor military personnel this summer by participating in the Blue Star Museums program in partnership with Blue Star Families, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and more than 1,300 museums across America.

The Blue Star Museums program allows free museum admission to military personnel and their families from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Because admission is always free to the Amon Carter, the museum is offering a free souvenir book to all active-duty and retired military personnel when they visit from May 31 to September 6.

More than 1,300 museums in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and American Samoa are taking part in the initiative. The complete list of participating museums is available at www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.

“Blue Star Museums may be the program at the NEA of which I am proudest,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “Blue Star Museums recognizes and thanks our military families for all they are doing for our country and simultaneously begins young people on a path to becoming life-long museum goers.”

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Receives $75,000 Education Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

admin — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:51:32 +0000

Release date:

May 9, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art announces that it has received a $75,000 Picturing America School Collaboration Project Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Only nine such grants were awarded nationwide, and the Amon Carter is one of three museums to receive this prestigious award. It is the second consecutive year the museum has been awarded the grant, which will fund a professional development conference for Texas teachers this summer, classroom resources, student field trips, interactive videoconferences and online curriculum.

“We are grateful and honored to receive the grant so that we may build upon the success of last year’s conference,” says Sara Klein, teacher and school programs manager. “We received great, positive feedback from teachers whose students benefited from the program, and we look forward to helping train many more educators about American art and how it can be used in the classroom.”

The Amon Carter will host the 2011 Picturing Americans teaching institute on July 27–28 for Texas K–12 public, private and homeschool educators who own a Picturing America poster set from the NEH. The conference will use images from Picturing America and the museum’s collection. Teachers will receive Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for attending the institute, a $250 stipend from the NEH, plus free classroom resources like digital images of artworks, posters and classroom activities tied to state and national teaching standards. Conference participants will also receive funding for a free interactive student videoconference from the museum or reimbursement of transportation expenses for an onsite school tour related to the conference theme at the museum.

After attending the 2010 conference, Michelle Aguilar, a teacher from St. Mary of Carmel Catholic School in Dallas, brought her first- and second-grade students to the museum for a school tour; the grant reimbursed the transportation expenses. “My students absolutely loved the Amon Carter,” she says. “I still get comments when they make connections to something that reminds them of the Amon Carter and what they saw on their field trip. I know the experience wouldn’t have been the same without the information I learned last year at the institute.”

The museum has also recently launched an online teaching resource in conjunction with the 2010 NEH grant that gives teachers even more resources to incorporate American art into their classrooms. Background information on artists and artworks in the Amon Carter’s collection, as well as discussion questions, can be found at cartermuseum.org/picturing-america.

For more information about applying for the 2011 conference in July or the online teaching resources, please contact Sara Klein at 817.989.5031 or teaching [at] cartermuseum [dot] org.

Fort Worth Art Museums Offer Discounts on May 18 for Art Museum Day

admin — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:50:43 +0000

Release date:

May 5, 2011

(Fort Worth, Texas)— The Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Kimbell Art Museum and Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will each participate in the Association of Art Museum Directors’ (AAMD) Art Museum Day on May 18 with discounts for museum visitors.

The Amon Carter will offer a 20 percent discount in the Museum Store (excluding food and beverages) and on memberships up to $500. The discount applies to new memberships as well as renewals.

The Kimbell will offer 15 months of membership for the price of 12 with the purchase of a new membership.

The Modern will offer free admission to its galleries.

Organized to coincide with International Museum Day, Art Museum Day focuses on the theme of “museum and memory.” Participation by AAMD member museums emphasizes the lasting impact art museums have on their communities, highlights the value of the visual arts in society, and provides new opportunities for audiences to participate in the wide-ranging programs that art museums offer.

AAMD member museums — located across the United States, Canada, and Mexico — include smaller regional museums as well as large international institutions. International Museum Day is organized annually by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). AAMD’s Art Museum Day is an opportunity to focus attention on the role of art museums in North America.

“Art Museum Day is an opportunity to celebrate the collective memory of human creativity, both past and present, that art museums hold in the public trust,” said Kaywin Feldman, President of AAMD and Director and President of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. “AAMD believes that art should be accessible and relevant to all, and we are so pleased that the art museums in Fort Worth’s Cultural District are joining with us and the global community of museums to create new opportunities for audiences to engage with museum collections and programs.”

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Offers Free Summer Storytime Program

admin — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:48:17 +0000

Release date:

May 4, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas—The Amon Carter Museum of American Art is pleased to announce the return of Storytime. This free public program for young children and their families is held every Wednesday, June 8–July 27, from 10:30–11:30 a.m., and brings the museum’s artworks to life through engaging children’s stories and related art activities.

“This summer, 24 children’s books, from new releases to old favorites Mom and Dad are sure to remember, will be read in the galleries and connected to artworks on display at the museum,” says Brady Sloane, public programs manager. “This combination of children’s literature, fine art and hands-on creativity is what makes Storytime a popular experience for children and adults alike.”

Storytime themes offer a variety of subjects to interest every child: America, birds, friendship, jungle animals, songs, Texas, trees and even eggs. Perfect attendance throughout the summer makes you eligible to win all the titles – 24 free books – read during Storytime. A drawing will be held at the conclusion of the eight-week series.

Storytime dates and themes are: June 8–Tropical Expedition; June 15–Trusty Sidekicks; June 22–Giddy Up, Texas!; June 29–Stars and Stripes; July 6–Branching Out; July 13–Sing Along; July 20–Eggstatic About Art; July 27–A Little Bird Told Me. Details on the books being read each week may be found at cartermuseum.org/calendar.

Museum Closing Early Saturday, April 30

admin — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:50:44 +0000

Release date:

April 22, 2011

The museum will close at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 30, to prepare for the museum’s 50th Anniversary Gala. We will open for public hours at noon on Sunday, May 1, as usual. We appreciate your patience during this disruption.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art to Exhibit Rarely Seen Works on Paper Collection

admin — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:05:01 +0000

Release date:

April 19, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas–In celebration of its 50th Anniversary, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents The Allure of Paper: Watercolors and Drawings from the Collection, on view July 9–October 9, 2011. Infrequently shown because of their sensitivity to light, the nearly 100 artworks in this special exhibition have never before been exhibited together. Admission is free.

The one-of-a-kind works of art range in date from the early 19th century to the mid-20th century and chronicle the sweeping changes that occurred in American art over the course of nearly 150 years. From portraiture and still-lifes to landscape and genre paintings, these objects embody the breadth of the museum’s works-on-paper holdings. Artists represented in the exhibition include Winslow Homer (1836–1910), Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), Ben Shahn (1898–1969) and Joseph Stella (1887–1946), among many others.

“The title of the show derives from the fact that all of these drawings and watercolors were created on paper – a medium that contributes a great deal to the look and feel of a finished work,” says Shirley Reece-Hughes, exhibition curator.

“Watercolor was the first medium employed by artist-explorers of the 16th century who sought to record the wonders of the New World,” she continues. “As America was being explored, watercolor was a convenient medium for traveling artists – paper, brushes and tins of powdered color were easily transported; because the pigment dries quickly and needs no varnishing or glazing, watercolors could be executed rapidly in the field. In fact, since American scenery became the most important subject matter for 19th-century artists, many advances and experiments in landscape painting were first seen in works on paper.”

Beginning in the 1820s artists in growing numbers exhibited their watercolors and drawings, reflecting an increasing respect for working with paper. While the Amon Carter’s drawings and watercolors collection reflects the major trends in American art from the early 19th to the mid-20th century, landscapes dominate the museum’s holdings. They reveal the varying approaches artists took to depicting the natural world over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. By the 1870s for instance, landscape artists such as George Inness (1825–1894) became less concerned with faithfully representing nature and more concerned with capturing light and tonal harmonies, along with patterns and rhythms.

“American watercolorists enjoyed a surge in popularity and support in the 1880s, and some of the most pivotal works in American modernism were created by watercolorists,” says Reece-Hughes. “A perfect example is John Marin (1870–1953), whose Brooklyn Bridge from 1912 heralded him as one of the most talented and radical avant-garde artists of his era.”

Also represented in the Amon Carter’s collection are several other significant examples of watercolors by pivotal mid-20th century artists like Hans Hofmann (1880–1966), Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000) and Edmund Lewandowski (1914–1998).

The exhibition, made possible by Frost, is accompanied by a 144-page catalogue that includes more than 120 reproductions. It retails for $39.95 in the Amon Carter’s Museum Store + Café, and is made possible in part by Sotheby’s.

“As we move into the next 50 years of our history, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art will continue to acquire landmark works on paper,” says Andrew Walker, director of the museum. “With a state-of-the-art-conservation lab and a team of conservators, we are well-positioned to preserve and care for such works.”

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Amon Carter offers these free public programs.

Thursday, July 21, 6 p.m.
Capturing the Nightlife: Early Twentieth-Century Watercolors Gallery Talk
Shirley Reece-Hughes, Assistant Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Discover why watercolor was the ideal medium for capturing exhilarating new forms of nightlife entertainment during the 1910s. No reservations are required.

Thursday, August 25, 6 p.m.
Light Coming on the Plains: Reconsidering Georgia O’Keeffe Lecture
Dr. Charles C. Eldredge, Hall Distinguished Professor of American Art and Culture, University of Kansas

Explore O’Keeffe’s watercolor series created while she was teaching art at West Texas State Normal College in Canyon, Texas.

Because seating is limited, reservations are required. To register, call 817.989.5030 or email visitors [at] cartermuseum [dot] org. This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Free, guided tours for this special exhibition occur at 3:30 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. No reservations are required.

Exhibition of New York centenarian artist Will Barnet on view at Amon Carter Museum of American Art beginning in June

admin — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:43:49 +0000

Release date:

April 7, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas– To mark the 100th birthday of pioneering printmaker, painter and educator Will Barnet (b. 1911), the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents Will Barnet: Relationships, Intimate and Abstract, 1935–1965, on view from June 18–December 31, 2011. This exhibition of nearly 50 prints, drawings and paintings explores the momentous evolution of Barnet’s art from realism to abstraction during the middle decades of the 20th century, the most pivotal period of his career. Admission is free.

Will Barnet’s eight-decade career began in 1931, when he earned a scholarship to the prestigious Art Students League in New York. He excelled at various printmaking techniques including lithography, intaglio and woodcut, and in 1935 he was the youngest person to be appointed League Printer. A year later he began teaching at the League, where he remained an instructor of graphic arts, composition and painting for 43 years. Barnet was one of the most enduring and prominent educators of the 20th century, teaching simultaneously at the League and Cooper Union, where he taught from 1945 to 1967; he also taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1967 to 1988. In addition, he was a visiting professor at prominent universities such as Yale and Cornell. His notable students include Robert Blackburn, Donald Judd, James Rosenquist, Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly.

In this exhibition viewers can witness the sophisticated progression of Barnet’s art from the 1930s to the 1960s, as well as the artist’s significant contributions to mid-twentieth-century abstraction. As he initiated an inventive phase of abstraction, Barnet was inspired by modern movements such as Cubism but also looked to such diverse sources as European old masters and most importantly Native American art. He began collecting turn-of-the-century volumes from the Smithsonian’s Bureau of Ethnology, which document Native American Indian cultures. The particular volumes by the Bureau that inspired Barnet will be featured in the exhibition. A volume devoted to ancient Pueblo pottery designs, for instance, sparked Barnet’s desire to create abstract forms with latent meanings and integrate them within a seamless space. Barnet’s stylistic evolution was thus marked by his search for the symbolic potential of forms and ways to devise meaningful relationships between these forms in his images.

“Realization can only come through relationships,” Barnet has said. “Without this most basic concept, all painting falls into a world of illusion and chaos.”

With this guiding principle, Barnet created one of his most important abstract paintings, the Amon Carter’s Self-Portrait (1952–53). Alongside this masterwork are related drawings being exhibited for the first time, which reveal the intricacies of Barnet’s creative process.

Visitors to the exhibition can hear directly from the artist about many of the works in the exhibition, his background, artistic process and personal philosophy of art by checking out the accompanying iPod touch audio tour available for free loan from the museum’s Information Desk during the run of the exhibition. The audio tour will also be offered on the museum’s website for individuals to access anytime.

“Will Barnet is well-known in New York, but the Amon Carter’s audiences may not be as familiar with his work,” says Shirley Reece-Hughes, assistant curator of paintings and sculpture. “We hope this exhibition will give our visitors an awareness and appreciation for this remarkable artist, who even at nearly 100, still paints daily.”

As his 100th birthday approaches on May 25, 2011, Barnet says, “All I think about is trying to make another painting ”¦ because it’s so much a part of my life that it’s like I can’t retire. ”¦ I will paint because it’s in the nature of the impression, color–and just touching that canvas is a wonderful feeling.”

Work of contemporary photographer Subhankar Banerjee on view at Amon Carter Museum of American Art

admin — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:07:38 +0000

Release date:

March 28, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas–On May 14, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents the work of contemporary photographer Subhankar Banerjee (b. 1967) in the exhibition Subhankar Banerjee: Where I Live I Hope to Know. In the exhibition, visitors will see 17 large-scale photographs, some displayed at unusual angles, taken within a 5-mile radius of the artist’s home near Santa Fe, N.M., from 2006–09. The photographs, which serve as poignant hallmarks of the close proximity of global transformation to the artist’s home, are on view through August 28. Admission is free.

During his daily walks around his community, Banerjee used familiar sights, such as the powerline and railroad, to direct his path. He began by photographing the cholla plant, a hearty cactus species that dots the high-desert landscape. After carefully studying his photographs, he began to notice how extensively the cactus is integrated into the region’s thriving ecosystem of birds and underground life. He moved on to making photographs of piÃ±on trees, particularly dead ones, which he learned form the habitats of a vibrant avian population. Finally, he made photographs of the New Mexico skies, the prints themselves serving as petitions for rain.

Densely visual, Banerjee’s cacti and tree photographs offer viewers fascinating and subtle clues about the desert ecosystem. Bird nests are revealed in various states of construction, decay and reconstruction; small cavities appear in the ground where burrowing animals live and seek sustenance from the root systems above and around them; tiny house finches sit perched in networks of branches; and holes in the trunks of dead trees are revealed as avian homes.

Along with these discoveries, Banerjee learned that the mature pinon forests of northern New Mexico have been dramatically reduced in recent years by a population explosion of bark beetles, an infestation recognized as an acute symptom of global warming.

“This exhibition harmonizes beautifully with our collection of photographs that reflect on the settlement and inhabitation of the western United States from the nineteenth century to the present,” says Jessica May, associate curator of photographs. “It’s my hope that the exhibition allows us to engage in conversation about the relationship of people to western landscapes and to do so in a way that is fresh and revealing.”

Banerjee established his artistic reputation with his outsized color prints of the Arctic, which beautifully portray the extraordinary range of wildlife that thrives in the globe’s far north. While he is firmly indebted to the tradition of fine art photography, Banerjee’s sympathies, like those of Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter before him, are deeply aligned with preservation.

Subhankar Banerjee: Where I Live I Hope to Know is organized by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and supported in part by a generous grant from the Lannan Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Alturas Foundation. The exhibition is accompanied by a small, limited-edition catalogue designed to optimally present Banerjee’s large prints.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the artist will sign books and speak at a free public lecture on Thursday, June 9, at 6 p.m. Because seating is limited, reservations are required. Please call 817.989.5030 to register. This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art Announces Three Promotions

admin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:17:03 +0000

Release date:

March 22, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas–Amon Carter Museum of American Art Director Andrew Walker announces today promotions in the development and accounting departments.

Coy Fagras has been named associate director of development. She is responsible for cultivating corporate relationships in addition to planning and implementing strategy to gain financial support for education programs, exhibitions and operations. Fagras began working at the Amon Carter in October 2008 as grant program manager. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Ronda Nabity has been promoted to development database manager. In this role she manages the development department’s extensive database and provides support to staff for donor recognition, fundraising programs, gift entry and acknowledgment, invitations, membership renewals and solicitations. Since joining the Amon Carter in 2002, Nabity has worked to improve donor records and administer the development database.

Dan Stoyak has been promoted to accounting manager. He is responsible for the accounting department and oversees audits and all financial reporting. Prior to joining the Amon Carter in August 2002, Stoyak held finance and human resources positions at American Airlines and Sprint. He has expertise in budgeting and financial analyses, the design and administration of compensation and benefit programs, and purchasing. Stoyak received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from The Ohio State University and a Masters of Business Administration from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Jessica May Promoted to Associate Curator of Photographs at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

admin — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:38:25 +0000

Release date:

March 14, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas–Amon Carter Museum of American Art Director Andrew Walker announced today that Jessica May has been promoted to Associate Curator of Photographs. She will continue to collaborate with John Rohrbach, senior curator of photographs, in managing the Amon Carter’s photography collection and interpreting and developing exhibitions on photography.

“Jessica has become an essential member of our museum staff and a key asset to the field of photography,” says Rohrbach. “This promotion is well deserved.”

“Since the day I started at the Amon Carter, it has been an honor and a pleasure to be part of this organization and to take part in building and exhibiting one of the nation’s finest collections of American photographs,” says May. “I am excited to continue that work into the next phase of my career.”

May joined the curatorial department in October 2006 after completing the Jane and Morgan Whitney Art History Fellowship in the Department of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her academic training is in the history of photography and American art. She holds a B.A. in art history from Barnard College of Columbia University, and both an M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from the University of California, Berkeley. Her doctoral dissertation, Off the Clock: Walker Evans and the Crisis of American Capital, 1933–38, led her to launch a concurrent project: the organization of an exhibition devoted to Evans, Berenice Abbott and Margaret Bourke-White entitled American Modern, which was shown at the Amon Carter last year. It is currently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago.

In addition to her work at the Met, May is the recipient of a Smithsonian Predoctoral Fellowship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Humanities at the University of California, Berkeley. The next photography exhibition May is curating for the Amon Carter is Subhankar Banerjee: Where I Live I Hope to Know, which opens on May 14.

Amon Carter’s Director of Education Named National Educator of the Year

admin — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:42:19 +0000

Release date:

February 15, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas–The National Art Education Association (NAEA) recently named Stacy Fuller, Amon Carter Museum of American Art director of education, as the Western Region Museum Art Educator of the Year. The award will be presented March 18 at NAEA’s national convention in Seattle, Wash.

The NAEA’s mission is to promote art education through professional development, service, advancement of knowledge and leadership. Founded in 1947, the NAEA is the leading professional membership organization exclusively for visual arts educators.

“There is no greater testament of Stacy’s exemplary contribution to the field of visual arts education than being chosen for this prestigious award,” says Deborah Reeve, NAEA executive director.

Fuller joined the Amon Carter in 2004. As director of education, she oversees the museum’s extensive and varied education programs, which include school tours, public programs, educator training and workshops, teaching resource center initiatives, and distance learning broadcasts. In addition, she has developed and successfully implemented the museum’s highly regarded Sharing the Past Through Art and Connect to Art accessible programs.

“For the past 50 years, the museum’s education department has been inspired by Amon G. Carter Sr.’s vision and has remained dedicated to connecting people of all ages and abilities to masterworks of American art through a variety of initiatives,” says Fuller. “I am honored to work with a team of people who love sharing the museum’s collection and exhibitions with as many audiences as possible.”

Fuller received the “40 Under 40” award from the Fort Worth Business Press in 2010 and is the vice president of the Museum Education Roundtable. She has led presentations at annual conferences of the Texas Association of Museums, National Art Education Association, Texas Art Education Association, American Association of Museums, and Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability, and has lectured at Humanities Texas summer teaching institutes.

Landmark American Masterpiece on View at Amon Carter beginning in February

admin — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:05:43 +0000

Release date:

January 10, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas–One of the most treasured paintings in American art, Kindred Spirits (1849) by Asher B. Durand, will be on view at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art this spring. The painting, on loan from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, Ark.), will hang concurrently with the museum’s special exhibition, The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision, from February 26–June 19, 2011. Admission is free to the museum and the special exhibition.

Beginning in the 1820s, the American landscape became a significant theme for artists who traveled up the Hudson River from New York City to sketch the rugged mountains and tranquil valleys along its banks. With the noted landscape painter Thomas Cole as their inspirational leader, these artists gave impetus to the first self-consciously “American” vision for landscape painting, a movement that would become known as the Hudson River School.

In Kindred Spirits, Durand, a Hudson River School artist, depicts Cole with his close friend and colleague William Cullen Bryant, the esteemed poet and editor. The painting was commissioned by art patron Jonathan Sturges as a tribute to Cole following his death in 1848 at age 47. Invoking John Keats’ “Sonnet VII,” Durand portrays Cole and Bryant together as “kindred spirits” in the landscape. After the painting was complete, Sturges gifted the work to Bryant.

In 1904, Bryant’s daughter Julia gave Kindred Spirits to the New York Public Library in Manhattan, where it hung on public view for more than a century before being deaccessioned and acquired by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

“The painting is glorious,” says Chris Crosman, chief curator at Crystal Bridges. “While our museum is under construction, we are thrilled that audiences can view the masterpiece in the Amon Carter’s galleries.”

The timing also coincides with the Amon Carter’s 50th Anniversary year. “How fitting that we can show such an iconic American painting during a milestone year for the museum,” says Rebecca Lawton, curator of paintings and sculpture at the Amon Carter. “We are grateful to Crystal Bridges for loaning us the work, which symbolizes our mutual dedication to presenting masterpieces of American art to audiences who may otherwise never have the opportunity to enjoy them.”
Additional works by Hudson River School artists, such as Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey and George Inness, are on view in the Amon Carter’s permanent collection throughout the year.

Iconic Hudson River School Paintings Travel to Amon Carter Museum of American Art for Spring Exhibition

admin — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:52:03 +0000

Release date:

January 5, 2011

FORT WORTH, Texas–On February 26, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision, organized by the New-York Historical Society (New York, New York). Undergoing a comprehensive renovation, the New-York Historical Society is sending nearly 50, 19th-century landscapes on a journey across the nation, and the first stop is Fort Worth. The special exhibition is on view at the Amon Carter through June 19, and admission is free.

“The New-York Historical Society houses one of the oldest and most comprehensive collections of landscape paintings by artists of the Hudson River School,” said New-York Historical Society Senior Art Historian Dr. Linda S. Ferber, curator of the exhibition. “We welcome this unique opportunity to share these treasures with a national audience.”

Beginning in the 1820s, the American landscape became a significant theme for artists, who traveled up the Hudson River from New York City to sketch the rugged mountains and tranquil valleys along its banks. With the noted landscape painter Thomas Cole as their inspirational leader, these artists gave impetus to the first self-consciously “American” vision for landscape painting, a movement that would become known as the Hudson River School.

Leading figures of the Hudson River School are represented in the exhibition, including Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Asher B. Durand, George Inness and John Frederick Kensett, among others. Arranged thematically, the exhibition illuminates the sites that artists depicted as resources for spiritual renewal, as well as potent symbols embodying powerful ideas about nature, culture and history.

The exhibition tells this story in four thematic sections: The American Grand Tour; American Artists A-Field; Dreams of Arcadia: Americans in Italy; and Grand Landscape Narratives.

The American Grand Tour features paintings of the Catskill, Adirondack and White Mountains celebrated for their scenic beauty and historic sites, as well as views of Lake George, Niagara Falls and the New England countryside. These were the destinations that most powerfully attracted both artists and travelers. The American Grand Tour also includes paintings that memorialize the Hudson River itself as the gateway to the touring destinations and primary sketching grounds for American landscape painters.

American Artists A-Field includes works by Hudson River School artists who after 1850 sought inspiration farther from home. The paintings of Church, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill and Martin Johnson Heade show how these adventurous painters embraced the role of artist-explorer and thrilled audiences with images of the landscape wonders of such far-flung places as the American frontier, Yosemite Valley and South America.

Dreams of Arcadia: Americans in Italy features wonderful paintings by Cole, Cropsey, Sanford R. Gifford and others who celebrated Italy as the center of the Old World and the principal destination for Americans on the European Grand Tour. Viewed as the storehouse of Western culture, Italy was a living laboratory of the past, with its cities, galleries and countryside offering a survey of artistic heritage from antiquity, as well as a striking contrast to the wilderness vistas of North America portrayed by these same artists.

The highlight of the exhibition is the section Grand Landscape Narratives, featuring Cole’s monumental five-painting series The Course of Empire (ca. 1834–36). Charting the cyclical history of an imaginary nation, the paintings are breathtaking in their wealth of detail from the initial scene of hunting in the wilderness to the concluding panel portraying the aftermath of an empire ravaged by its own decadence and corruption.

“It’s quite a privilege to have these magnificent Hudson River School paintings in Fort Worth, and museum visitors should definitely take advantage of seeing them,” says Rebecca Lawton, curator of paintings and sculpture at the Amon Carter. “It’s very likely they won’t be on view in Fort Worth again in our lifetimes.”

The ideas explored in the exhibition are also investigated in an award-winning 224-page publication by Ferber. The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision book features 150 full-color illustrations and retails in the Amon Carter’s Museum Store + CafÃ© for $50.

Nature and the American Vision will also travel to the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. (July 30–November 6, 2011); the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, S.C. (November 17, 2011–April 1, 2012); and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Ark. (May–August, 2012). The paintings will then return to their renovated home at the New-York Historical Society.

The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. A Tru Vue Optium® Conservation Grant from The Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works has supported glazing of the works in the exhibition. The local presentation of this exhibition is supported in part by
the Katrine Menzing Deakins Trust and the Crystelle Waggoner Trust; U.S. Trust, Trustee.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Amon Carter offers these free public programs.

Every Tuesday from January 18–April 26 (excluding March 15), 3–4 p.m.
People and Places in American Art
Lecture Series by Dr. Mark Thistlethwaite, Kay and Velma Kimbell Chair of Art History, TCU

Examine the artistic and historical contexts of American art from the Colonial period through the Hudson River School.

Thursday, March 24, 6 p.m.
The Moral of All Human Tales: Thomas Cole’s The Course of Empire*
Lecture by Dr. Mark Thistlethwaite, Kay and Velma Kimbell Chair of Art History, TCU

Reflect on Cole’s masterful series The Course of Empire and how it fits into the context of American history painting during the antebellum decades.

This program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Sunday, April 10, 1–4 p.m.
April Showers Family Funday

April showers bring May flowers! Find out why by exploring artworks of plants and flowers through hands-on art activities.

Family Fundays are made possible by Alcon.

Thursday, May 12, 6 p.m.
Keeping It Current: Contemporary Artists Working in Classical Style*
Panel Discussion

Join the conversation with classically trained contemporary artists whose work is inspired by nineteenth-century Hudson River School artists.

*Because seating is limited, reservations are required. Call 817.989.5030 or email education [at] cartermuseum [dot] org to register.