: From April 14 to June 12, the Frick Art & Historical Center
will feature an exhibition of painting and sculpture by many of
America's most celebrated artists from the Eighteenth through the
early Twentieth Century.
"American Beauty: Painting and Sculpture from the Detroit
Institute of Arts, 1770-1920" features more than 90 masterworks
that trace the development of the nation's art and uniquely
American definitions of beauty.
The exhibition includes some of the best-known works representing
the major American art movements and trends of the period.
Represented in this expansive survey are the colonial artist John
Singleton Copley; Hudson River School artists Thomas Cole and
Frederic Edwin Church; American Impressionists Mary Cassatt,
Childe Hassam and William Merritt Chase; the Tonalists George
Inness, Thomas Wilmer Dewing and James McNeill Whistler; Realist
Thomas Eakins; and Winslow Homer who redefined the American genre
scene.
"American Beauty" also includes iconic sculptures by Frederic
Remington, Hiram Powers and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The
exhibition concludes with several outstanding paintings by the
Ashcan artists John Sloan, George Bellows and Robert Henri.
The exhibition is organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts to
coincide with extensive construction work on its building.
Following European tour at the National Gallery of Ireland, the
Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the American Museum at Giverny,
France, "American Beauty" traveled to three American venues. The
Frick Art & Historical Center is the final US destination.
Europeans who settled in young America sought to forge a unique
style of government, religion, society and culture. In their
attempts to create a national visual identity, American artists
were inspired by both their own experiences living in a
developing nation, as well as lessons from abroad. While many
alternated between homegrown creativity and international
influences, certain characteristics reappear in their art: an
adherence to truthful depiction, directness, idealism and a
belief in progress.
"American Beauty" explores the development of American art
through portraits, still lifes, landscapes and realistic genre
scenes, as well as sculpture, beginning with America's first
"homemade" talent, John Singleton Copley. The artist is
represented by five canvases, including one of three versions
that he produced of "Watson and the Shark" (1777-78). This heroic
and frightening work was born of Copley's desire to create, while
an expatriate living in London, an American history painting.
By the 1830s, landscape painting had become the vehicle for
depicting an American identity. Throughout the rest of the
century, portrayal of the American landscape took a variety of
forms: mysterious and sublime wilderness; a new territory
requiring scientific documentation; the pioneers' territorial and
natural destiny; or the individual's private retreat.
"The Trapper's Return," 1851, by George Caleb Bingham, the most
celebrated genre painter of the pre-Civil War era, captures a
vanishing way of life on America's frontier rivers, while
Frederic Edwin Church's large-scale masterpiece "Cotopaxi," 1862,
represents the glorious landscapes of the Hudson River School.
After 1867, increasing numbers of artists went abroad with a
determination to learn from the best and to recreate the very
nature of American art. James McNeill Whistler's art and theories
derive entirely from his experience in Paris and London as
reflected in his "Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling
Rocket," 1874.
Sargent's dazzling, full-length portrait, "Madame Paul Poirson,"
1885, is also featured. Other artists of the period such as
William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, John Twachtman and Thomas
Eakins studied abroad and returned home to apply the lesions they
had learned in Europe to American themes.
In the opening decades of the Twentieth Century, America was the
wealthiest and most modern country in the world, with New York
City symbolizing the country's financial and technological
superiority. A group of artists called the Ashcan School captured
both the grittiness and the vitality of the city. Led by artist
Robert Henri, this pioneering group introduced new themes into
American art. John Sloan's "McSorley's Bar," 1912, illustrates
his conviction that the real artist finds beauty in everyday
life.
"American Beauty" is accompanied by a fully illustrated, 123-page
catalog featuring essays by Detroit Institute of Arts director
Graham W.J. Beal.
Admission is $10. The center is at 7227 Reynolds Street in
Point Breeze. Hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. For
information, 412-371-0600 or www.frickart.org.
