Untitled, 1981, reflecting the idiosyncratic aesthetic of the
short-lived Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), stands out in the
"Private Hands" exhibition. Collection of Aimee and Robert
Lehrman, Wash-ington
Today, the school boasts what Dean Jeffrey Carr describes as
"one of the largest programs in the country devoted exclusively to
the traditional fine art studio disciplines of painting, drawing,
printmaking and sculpture." The 300 full-time students are diverse
in styles and approaches to creating art. "We view art as a
vocation, almost as a calling," says Carr, adding that "the academy
is about making art as a way of life."
Since 1876 the school and museum have been housed in what is
surely one of the most beautiful museums in the world. Designed
by Frank Furness and George Hewitt, it is a decorative tour de
force, outside and inside. This year's expansion into the Samuel
M.V. Hamilton Building across the street from the original museum
has added significant gallery and teaching spaces.
Many treasures from the museum's important permanent collection
have been highlighted during 2005. Peale's iconic "The Artist in
his Museum," 1822, shows the academy's patron saint raising a
curtain to reveal the wonders of his first museum, then located
in Philadelphia's Independence Hall. A genuine blockbuster is
"Death on a Pale Horse," 1817, painted by the academy's first
honorary member, Benjamin West, a mammoth depiction of the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse that was purchased by mortgaging the
museum's building and then was heroically saved during a
devastating fire in the 1840s. There are several famous portraits
of Washington in the collection, including Gilbert Stuart's
"Lansdowne Portrait" of 1796.
Members of the prolific Peale family are generously represented
in the holdings, as are such early titans as John Singleton
Copley, Washington Allston, Thomas Sully and Edward Hicks. The
manner in which John Vanderlyn, the first American artist to
study in France, put his training to good use is reflected in his
enduringly sensuous nude, "Ariadne Asleep on the Island of
Naxos," 1809-1814. John Neagle's "Pat Lyon at the Forge," 1829,
is a commanding portrait of that blacksmith at work, while genre
pioneer William Sidney Mount's "The Painter's Triumph," 1838,
shows an awestruck farmer wowed by an artist's creation.
The Hudson River School is well represented, as are Nineteenth
Century sculptors ranging from Powers and Crawford to Ward and
Saint-Gaudens. Fine paintings by instructors Chase and Beaux are
arrayed near works by accomplished academy school alumni like
Cassatt, Harnett and Parrish. Eakins, who influenced a generation
of art teachers but was eventually dismissed from his position,
has a number of works in the collection, highlighted by his warm
and insightful portrait of a white-bearded Walt Whitman of 1888
and the dignified "The Cello Player" of 1896.
The permanent collection also includes familiar paintings by such
perennial favorites as Inness, Homer ("Fox Hunt," 1893),
Twachtman, Weir and Hassam. George Bellows's powerful "North
River," 1908, contrasts with the delicate beauty of Philip Leslie
Hale's "The Crimson Rambler," painted about the same year.
Abstract works by Marsden Hartley and Carles vie for attention
with such realist masters as Henri, Luks, Glackens, Sloan,
Hopper, Sheeler and O'Keeffe. American scene painters Benton and
Wood are represented, as are works by Pennsylvania natives as
diverse as Stuart Davis and Andrew Wyeth. Among the African
American standouts are Pippin, Bearden, Lawrence, Catlett and
Ringgold.
Albert Bierstadt's golden-hued "Wind River Wyoming," circa
1870, is characteristic of the German-born painter's
romanticized view of the American West. Courtesy of The
Anschutz Collection.
More abstract painters, such as Rothko, Motherwell and
Diebenkorn, have works in the collection, as do sculptors like
Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson. Notable living artists in the
permanent collection include Philip Pearlstein, Alex Katz and Frank
Stella. Former student, now faculty member Desiderio's huge
"Procreator," 2002, is among the more recent additions to this
impressive museum trove.
Concluding a year of interesting special shows, "In Private
Hands: 200 Years of American Art," on view through January 8, is
in the words of academy president and director Derek A. Gillman,
"a truly magical exhibition representing America's huge
achievement in the visual arts." The 100 works from 54 private
collections, curated by Nicolai Cikovsky, the esteemed retired
curator of American and British paintings at the National Gallery
of Art, and Lynn Marsden-Atlass, the academy's senior curator,
include a number of the finest works of American art ever
created. It is certainly one of the most impressive assemblages
of major works from private collections ever presented in an
American museum. A valuable, scholarly catalog accompanies the
exhibition.
About one third of the works in the "In Private Hands" show date
from the Nineteenth Century. Among the earliest is Hudson River
School founder Thomas Cole's idyllic "The Falls of Kaaterskill,"
1826. "Cole invented American landscape painting," Cikovsky
writes in the catalog, "and in so doing, he virtually invented
American painting." Other standout early works include luminist
Fitz Hugh Lane's evocative "Boston Harbor at Sunset," 1853, and
tonalist George Inness's "Delaware Water Gap," circa 1857. John
La Farge's "The Last Waterlilies," 1862, is an exquisite reminder
of the gifts of that multitalented artist, as are two enduringly
appealing views of Italy by John Singer Sargent.
The greatest of them all, Winslow Homer, is represented by two
early watercolors highlighted by the gloriously hued "Gloucester
Sunset," 1880, and a strong late oil, "Cape Trinity, Saguenay
River Moonlight," 1904, inspired by a fishing expedition in
Quebec. Of special interest to some visitors will be works by two
masters of art of the American West: Albert Bierstadt's golden
view of "Wind River Wyoming," circa 1870, and Frederic
Remington's realistically romantic "Return of a Blackfoot War
Party," circa 1887.
As befits the academy's recent focus, two-thirds of the works in
"In Private Hands" date to the Twentieth and Twenty-First
Centuries. Among the turn-of-the-century Ashcan School painters
are Bellows, Glackens, Luks and John Sloan, whose charming "Gray
and Brass," 1907, evokes memories of the early days of the
automobile. There are early experiments in abstraction, such as
Max Weber's energetic "New York." 1913, and works by O'Keeffe and
Marin. Paintings by Paul Cadmus, Lawrence ("Christmas in Harlem,"
1937) and Benton reflect the vicissitudes of American life in the
1930s and 1940s.
The triumph of the Abstract Expressionists is reflected in
several Jackson Pollock works, including "Number 23, 1949," which
Robert Rosenblum calls in his catalog essay "a perfect example of
the artist's innovative techniques of pouring and splattering
paint to create a new abstract language of impulse and energy set
loose...." Also displayed are works by such avant-garde titans as
de Kooning, Hofmann and Rothko. Several stars of Pop Art weigh in
with characteristic works, including Andy Warhol's multiple
likenesses of Jacquelyn Kennedy, "Sixteen Jackies," 1964; Robert
Rauschenberg's complex "Drawing III for 700th Birthday of Dante
(A) and (B)," 1965, and Roy Lichtenstein's bold and colorful
"Cape Cod Still Life II," 1973.
Gifted in creating everything from watercolors to stained-glass
images, John LaFarge also excelled in oil painting as evidenced
by "The Last Waterlilies," 1862. Private collection, courtesy
of Thomas Colville Fine Art.
Postmodern and contemporary works by the likes of Jean-Michel
Basquiat, Brice Marden and Matthew Ritchie suggest diversity of
expression at the end of the last century and starting into the
Twenty-First Century.
Organizers Cikovsky and Marsden-Atlass have done a marvelous job
of assembling diverse, topnotch works for this rewarding
exhibition. As Pennsylvania Academy head Gillman says, "'In
Private Hands' celebrates the legacy of American art and is a
perfect complement to the academy's 200th anniversary
celebration."
Also on view (through November 20) are a number of prints of
Brazilian-born Vik Muniz's illusionist drawings and sculptures,
including a depiction of Charles Willson Peale, and (through
January 8) Ellen Harvey's site-specific installation of mirrors
that echo the academy's architecture and traditions.
The current exhibitions offer fresh reasons to visit this
beautiful and historic museum and to applaud its proud legacy,
while anticipating its exciting future. An enduring fusion of the
past, present and future, this venerable institution is poised to
carry on its mission to develop American artists and to enhance
appreciation for their work, while continuing its contributions
to the national and international art worlds.
The exhibition catalog, fully illustrated and with essays by
Cikovsky, Marsden-Atlass and Robert Rosenblum of New York
University, is both readable and informative.
For those interested in the history of the academy, its
anniversary publication, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts: 200 Years of Excellence, 1805-2005 is available for $80
(hardcover) and $60 (softcover). The 312-page book contains
essays covering the institution's history (by this author), its
buildings, school, museum holdings, and a timeline of important
events. Short essays accompany 220 color reproductions of
treasures from the permanent collection.
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is at the corner of
Broad and Cherry Streets in the heart of the city. For
information, 215-972-7600 or www.pafa.org.
