Dec 5, 2012 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s inaugural exhibition of its collection featured more than 450 works of art, representing nearly half of its entire holdings at the time of the museum’s opening on Nov. 11, 2011. Now, one year later, the museum’s collection has grown to include a total of 2,040 artworks. Acquisitions over the past year have included five sculptures, eight paintings, one mixed media work, and 504 works on paper, which includes drawings, photographs, watercolors, and a collection of 468 prints made by American artists between 1925 and 1945. Crystal Bridges has an active acquisition program, guided by Executive Director Don Bacigalupi, museum curators and board leadership. Central to the consideration of any acquisition is the museum’s mission to tell the story of America through its great works of art, which include works by artists with household names as well as remarkable works by significant but lesser-known artists. “The Crystal Bridges collection will continue to grow as extraordinary works become available to us,” said Bacigalupi. “We have a strategic acquisitions plan that guides our choices, but as a young institution, we also have the ability to be flexible as opportunities arise. When we are presented with a great work of art that tells an important part of the American story, we can take action fairly quickly. We were fortunate in our inaugural year to add such a number of significant artworks to our collection. We look forward to presenting them to our guests in the year and years ahead.” Acquisition highlights The museum has already hosted a public unveiling of one of the super-stars of the recent acquisitions — a large, luminous painting by the Abstract Expressionist artist Mark Rothko, which is now on view as part of the museum’s temporary exhibition See the Light: the Luminist Tradition in American Art. This exhibition also features a recently acquired early work by glass artist Dale Chihuly. The Rothko will be re-located to the museum’s Twentieth-Century Art Gallery following the close of See the Light in late January. In addition, there are several other show-stoppers among the museum’s inaugural year acquisitions that visitors may look forward to seeing in the galleries in the months ahead. Ammi Phillips (1788-1865), Woman in Black Ruffled Dress, ca. 1835. Oil on canvas. Among the recent acquisitions is an iconic portrait by American folk artist Ammi Phillips titled Woman in Black Ruffled Dress, painted ca. 1835. Phillips was born in Connecticut and though he was a prolific artist, with more than 400 paintings now attributed to him, it was not until 1968 that he was positively identified as the artist. Phillips’s earlier works used a soft pastel palette. Later works, such as Crystal Bridges’ new acquisition, used much bolder hues and darker backgrounds. “A self-taught New England portrait painter, Phillips is considered one of the most important folk artists of his era,” said Curator of American Art Kevin Murphy, “which is an area in which we’ve been looking to broaden our offerings. ”Phillips’s Woman in Black Ruffled Dress has recently been installed in Crystal Bridges’ Colonial to Early Nineteenth-Century Art Gallery. William Wetmore Story (1819-1895), Sappho, 1867. Marble. Adding a neoclassical presence to Crystal Bridges’ offerings is a nearly five-foot-tall white marble sculpture of the Greek poet Sappho by William Wetmore Story. The poet is seated in a chair with her arms crossed along the chair’s back, her lyre at her side and a pensive expression on her face. Her robe, necklace, and the rose that graces her lyre are rendered in classical detail. This sculpture is scheduled to receive conservation work in the year ahead, as well as a new base, before it will make its public debut. Miriam Schapiro (b. 1923), A Mayan Garden, 1984. Fabric and acrylic on canvas collage. Miriam Schapiro is a contemporary artist who lives and works in California. Her shaped-canvas mixed-media work A Mayan Garden has also been added to the Crystal Bridges collection. Schapiro is known as one of the country’s prominent feminist artists. She, along with fellow artist Judy Chicago, was one of the founders of the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts. A Mayan Garden is one of Schapiro’s “femmages” — mixed-media collage works that draw on techniques traditionally perceived as being the domain of women, such as appliqué and decoupage — and will debut at Crystal Bridges during 2013. Thomas Hart Benton (1889 – 1975), Tobacco Sorters, 1942/1944. Tempera and oil on panel. Missouri-native artist Thomas Hart Benton is a well-known regional favorite. Tobacco Sorters was originally commissioned by the American Tobacco Company, which wanted to connect its consumers to the farmers who grew their product. The work is currently displayed as a key component in the museum’s Early Twentieth-Century Art Gallery. “A larger work than the other Bentons we have in our collection, this immediately filled a niche in our early twentieth-century area,” says Murphy. “It had been in a private collection, and it was important to the owners that it be shared with a larger audience.” Prints for the People A large portion of the year’s acquisitions comprise a collection of 468 early twentieth-century prints amassed by a private collector. The collection features artists working in styles that range from Benton’s Regionalism to Charles Sheeler’s Precisionism, as well as all of the major printmaking media: drypoint, etching, engraving, lithography, screenprint, woodcut, and wood engraving. The collection contains artists best known for their work in other media, such as Benton and Sheeler, but also those who chose to express themselves almost exclusively through prints, including Martin Lewis and Benton Spruance. Female artists are prominent, with Ida Abelman, Minna Citron, Mabel Dwight, Jolan Gross-Bettelheim, Riva Helfond, and Bernarda Bryson Shahn represented through at least one, but often multiple, works. “This acquisition dramatically expands Crystal Bridges’ holdings of prints, opening new avenues for the museum’s ability to interpret the rich history of American art,” said Murphy, who has curated an exhibition from the new collection. Selected Prints to be featured in Exhibition A selection of these recently acquired prints will be on view at Crystal Bridges from December 21 through April 22 in a temporary exhibition titled Art Under Pressure: Early Twentieth Century American Prints. These works were created between 1925 and 1945, a time of great social change and hardship for the American people. Printmaking came into its own during the Depression and World War II era as a fine-art medium. Artists who worked primarily in other media often used prints as a means of experimentation or to work out ideas. Other artists whose primary medium was printmaking began to experiment with technique, expanding the limits of the medium to create original artworks that could be inexpensively produced in multiples and distributed. Mail-order art dealers worked with artists to produce limited edition prints and promote them in catalog format from which consumers could purchase a print for a few dollars. It was the first time original artwork was within the financial means of average Americans. “There are a number of prints that deal with the Depression head on and take an approach that looks at people hard at work and trying to improve their circumstances,” said Murphy. “These are printmakers who themselves were often living at the margins and could really understand their fellow blue-collar workers. The collection represents a moment where the American artist and the American people were in sync in a way that we haven’t seen since the Hudson River School painters, and we don’t see again for another generation.” Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is located in Bentonville, Ark. Additional information about the museum is available online at https://test.crystalbridges.org. About Crystal Bridges The mission of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is to welcome all to celebrate the American spirit in a setting that unites the power of art with the beauty of landscape. The museum explores the unfolding story of America by actively collecting, exhibiting, interpreting, and preserving outstanding works that illuminate our heritage and artistic possibilities. Opened to the public on 11-11-11, Crystal Bridges was founded in 2005 by philanthropist Alice Walton, who chairs the museum’s board of directors. In its first year of operation, the museum welcomed more than 604,000 visitors and garnered more than 7,500 households in its membership. More than 11,500 schoolchildren have taken part in the museum’s Willard and Pat Walker School Visit program. The museum takes its name from a nearby natural spring and the bridge construction incorporated in the building design by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie. A series of pavilions nestled around two spring-fed ponds house galleries, meeting and classroom spaces, and a large, glass-enclosed gathering hall. Guest amenities include a restaurant on a glass-enclosed bridge overlooking the ponds and a museum store designed by architect Marlon Blackwell. Sculpture and walking trails link the museum’s 120-acre park to downtown Bentonville, Arkansas. Crystal Bridges’ permanent collection spans five centuries of American masterworks ranging from the Colonial era to the current day. Included within the collection are iconic images such as Asher B. Durand’s Kindred Spirits, Rosie the Riveter by Norman Rockwell, and Andy Warhol’s Dolly Parton, each reflecting a distinct moment in American artistic evolution. In addition to historical works, the museum’s collection also showcases major works by modern and contemporary American artists, including Roy Lichtenstein, James Turrell, and Georgia O’Keeffe, providing visitors with a unique opportunity to experience the full scope of American art. Crystal Bridges will continue to grow its collection through the efforts of its professional staff as well as through important gifts from private collectors. The permanent collection, which is on view year-round, is further enhanced by an array of ongoing temporary exhibitions. # # #
