CLEVELAND, OHIO - The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) will host
"Modern American Masters: Highlights from the Gill and Tommy
LiPuma Collection," an exhibition highlighting the private
collection of Cleveland native and Grammy Award-winning record
producer Tommy LiPuma.
The exhibition will feature 24 selected works by leading American
artists of the Twentieth Century collected by LiPuma and his wife
Gill since the 1970s. The show will open March 28, and remain on
view through July 18.
Admission to this exhibition and the museum is free. The
exhibition will also include a separate area featuring LiPuma's
achievements from his four decades in the music industry -
including album covers, gold records, personal photographs and
one of his Grammy Awards.
Reflecting the personal taste of a man who has a deep passion for
experimental American modernism, the LiPuma collection features
works spanning the years 1906-1946, concentrating in some depth
on four artists, Alfred Maurer (1868-1932), Marsden Hartley
(1877-1943), John Marin (1870-1953) and Arnold Friedman
(1879-1946). This exhibition will include works by these artists
as well as John Graham (1996-1961), Patrick Henry Bruce
(1881-1936) and Arthur Dove (1880-1946).
The exhibition will include three paintings by Maurer that LiPuma
recently donated to the museum; Maurer was one of the first
American artists to incorporate avant-garde styles into his own
work.
LiPuma demonstrates his independent spirit as a collector through
superb selection of paintings by Arnold Friedman, an artist not
commonly acknowledged in histories of American art. Friedman
worked for the post office and did not start formal art training
until the age of 32. Although he studied under Robert Henri
(1865-1929) at the Art Students League, Friedman developed his
own, highly independent style that combines brilliant color with
unusual textural effects. At times his paintings verge toward
complete abstraction.
Other highlights to this collection include three paintings by
Hartley, who began studying art by attending classes at the
Cleveland School of Art in 1893. A tormented loner, Hartley was
one of the first American artists to discover avant-garde art on
trips to Paris and Berlin.
"Burchfield to Schreckengost"
In conjunction with "Modern American Masters," the Cleveland
Museum of Art will host "Burchfield to Schreckengost: Cleveland
Art of the Jazz Age," March 28 to July 18. Admission to this
exhibition is also free. Cleveland artists from the early
Twentieth Century were among the first to embrace the new spirit
of the Jazz Age, with its emphasis on innovation, experimentation
and freedom of expression. Artists working in a wide variety of
media accepted the challenge of finding new forms of expression
equivalent to the realities of life in the world of fast cars,
soaring skyscrapers and improvised music. Their lively, energetic
styles seemed to mirror society's infatuation with youth, speed,
motion pictures and airplanes.
This exhibition features approximately 66 works (paintings,
sculptures, photographs and decorative arts) produced between
1914 and 1941 by leading Cleveland artists of the period,
including Charles Burchfield (1893-1967), Margaret Bourke-White
(1904-1971), William Sommer (1867-1949) and Viktor Schreckengost
(born 1906).
The Tri-C JazzFest's 25th anniversary (April 14-25) includes
special performances saluting jazz legends Horace Silver and
Tommy LiPuma. For information on these events, 216-987-4400, or
www.tricjazzfest.com.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is in University Circle, 11150
East Boulevard. Its permanent collection spans 6,000 years. For
information, 888-CMA-0033.
