Celebrating the American Spirit is the inaugural exhibition showcasing the museum’s permanent collection. Twelve galleries in four separate buildings will house the collection, which is arranged chronologically to provide a journey through American history as guests move through the museum. Beginning with the Colonial period, guests will see the evolution of the depiction of landscape as it defines American identity and a sense of national culture. Among the earliest landscapes in the collection is one by John Taylor, one of the leading lights of landscape painting of the time. It illustrates the colonialists’ sense of connection to the neoclassical traditions of European landscape painting.
A dramatic change in this view is evident in the 19th century, when the American love-affair with its landscape comes to life. The collection’s iconic work for this era is Asher B. Durand’s Kindred Spirits, in which the landscape is as much a subject as the figures: quintessential American writer William Cullen Bryant and painter Thomas Cole. These and other examples of the Hudson River School grace this gallery and showcase the wild beauty of the American landscape as seen by its artists.
In the latter half of the 19th century, new styles emerged from Europe to influence American art, including Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. These, in the hands of American artists such as John Singer Sargent and Maria Oakey Dewing bring to life an American landscape enriched with a celebration of paint with modern brushstrokes and vivid unmixed colors.
Grittier, but no less arresting, are the works on view in two galleries focusing on the first half of the 20th century. These galleries showcase art of the Industrial age, including examples of the Ashcan School such as George Wesley Bellows’ Excavation at Night, in which the American landscape takes on a far more urban aspect.
Post World War II and contemporary works are represented in yet another pair of galleries, and showcase American art’s coming-of-age on the international stage. Works in these galleries include powerful 20th century American artists whose styles helped elevate American art on the world stage: Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg and Joan Mitchell are represented here, among many others.
With some of the finest works by America’s most recognized artists alongside works by rising talent, Celebrating the American Spirit presents narratives and themes not found in other collections, providing a framework for understanding the collection as a whole. Two of these themes include the variety of ways in which artists have engaged with nature throughout the history of American art, and the presence of women in American society, with an emphasis on their evolving role, both as subject and as artist. – www.crystalbridges.org