The National Academy’s Annual exhibition, open January 25 – April 29, 2012, features works by over 100 artists and architects juxtaposing contemporary masters with emerging and mid-career artists.
“Presenting three generations of artists and architects, this exhibition illustrates the continuum of American art,” says Marshall Price, the Academy’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. “The new format contextualizes contemporary art, indicating an evolution to ‘new.’ With a nod to the Academy’s historic Annual, the 2012 exhibition is a forum for divergent aesthetic inclinations and in some cases for social issues being addressed by artists and architects.
While the Annual’s strength has often been found in traditional mediums (painting, sculpture, and printmaking), this year’s exhibition includes video work by three generations of women artists, as well as a greater number of architectural projects than in the recent past.
Featured artists and architects also include Lynda Benglis, David Diao, Lesley Dill, Kate Gilmore, Joan Jonas, Roberto Juarez, Glenn Ligon, Alison Saar, Arlene Shechet, Ursula von Rydingsvard, and Carrie Mae Weems. Architectural projects include work by Peter Gluck, Thomas Phifer, Robert A. M. Stern, Bernard Tschumi, Billie Tsien, Rafael Violy, and others.
About The National Academy
Integrating a museum, an art school and an honorary association of artists and architects, the Academy is dedicated to creating and advancing a living history of American art. The Academy’s inception in 1825 represented a defining moment for American art. Its founders – including Samuel F. B. Morse, Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand – were well aware of America’s dependency on the European artistic tradition and the country’s lack of venues for the exhibition or instruction of art. With the founding of the National Academy, their ambitious desire to establish an institution that would serve American visual culture became a reality.
Today, the National Academy envisions its original mission of exhibition and education through a contemporary lens. It is a continually evolving testament to the transformative power of art where tradition is celebrated and new visionaries embraced, connecting the past, present and future of American art and architecture.
National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts
Amy Zaltzman
212-369-4880
www.nationalacademy.org