Transcending Vision:  American Impressionism 1870–1940
Provided by Bank of America Art in our Communities program
August 28, 2010–January 9, 2011

This engaging exhibition features stunning American Impressionist paintings and is bracketed by precursor and subsequent movements in American art.  Transcending Vision contains works by more than seventy artists, including such major figures as Thomas Moran, George Inness, Childe Hassam, Daniel Garber, John Sloan, Ernest Lawson, George Bellows, and Guy Wiggins.  It is drawn from one of the most notable components of Bank of America’s art collection.

The exhibition highlights regional artists’ colonies established across the United States. It explores the ways in which artists interpreted America’s rural, maritime, and urban spaces, as well as their portrayal of daily life often using the Impressionist devices of capturing the moment with brisk brushstrokes, a vibrant palette, and atmospheric effects.

The exhibition provides a thought-provoking historical context for American Impressionism by positioning it between the Hudson River School and the realist trends evident in the later canvases.  The earlier majestic landscapes of native scenery gradually gave way to works inspired by the French Impressionists.  These paintings represent the changing mindset of American art and culture from the late-nineteenth century to World War II.

This exhibition is provided by Bank of America Art in our Communities program.

Changing Identities: The Len Prince Photographs of Jessie Mann
June 5-September 26

Len Prince is celebrated for glamorous portraits of Hollywood stars and sleek advertisements for Cartier and Estée Lauder. In 2001 he met a self-possessed young woman, Jessie Mann, who had practically grown up in front of the camera. Sally Mann’s nude photographs of her children, including Jessie, created great controversy, igniting debate over child exploitation, censorship, and the nature of art.

By the end of Prince’s first session photographing the adult Jessie, she had become his muse. What followed was a five-year collaboration exploring archetype, transformation, and identity. These have become some of Prince’s most accomplished and respected photographs.

Prince and Mann make compelling images that reference paintings, famous photographs, historical figures, and mythology. They have been inspired by Ingres’ sumptuous Grand Odalisque, May Ray’s solarized image of Lee Miller, and Robert Mapplethorpe’s self- portrait in leather chaps, among other images. While these photographs can be disturbing and stark, they are often beautiful and fascinating. Theatrical and seductive, these unforgettable images explore the relationship between viewer, subject, and artist by examining personae and their meaning, as well as the very nature of the self.

A Passion for Photography:
Selections from the Carol A. Upham Donation
June 5-September 26

Carol A. Upham has been instrumental in making the Museum’s collection of photography one of the finest in Florida.  This select exhibition features approximately 30 from her gift in 2009 of 58 photographs by many of the twentieth-century’s leading figures.

Edward Curtis, Walker Evans, W. Eugene Smith, Joel Sternfeld, Arthur Tress, and Sally Mann are represented by telling works. Mann’s poignant image of an adolescent girl, an untitled work from the series At Twelve, is her first to enter the collection, as is Arthur Tress’ Hockey Player, which reveals his fascination with fantasy and dreams.  Prints by artists working after 1975, a gap in the MFA’s holdings, are also part of Mrs. Upham’s most recent gift. Among these significant artists are Birney Imes, Catherine Wagner, and Linda Robbenholt.  Mrs. Upham’s love of the American landscape, especially of the West, is demonstrated by the photographs of Don Worth, Alan Ross, and John Sexton. Striking images of Florida by Clyde Butcher and Woody Walters are also on view.

Throughout the years, Mrs. Upham, herself a photographer and a former gallery owner, has donated some of the Museum’s most cherished images. To enhance the collection and to bring together others interested in the medium, Mrs. Upham served as the MFA’s first President of the Friends of Photography. She joined the Board of Trustees in 1980 and served as Treasurer and Vice President, before becoming President in 1998.  The Museum’s history could not be written without a lengthy chapter devoted to her dedication and service, as well as to her passion for photography. As this exhibition indicates, that chapter is still being written.

A Different Luster features a selection of some of the finest pieces of pewter from the collection of the late Lewis M. Andrews Jr. These impressive holdings of 148 pieces from around the world started as a pair of teapots purchased from a New York antique dealer in 1970.

The more than 30 works in this exhibition include beautiful British teapots from the early nineteenth century; a simple, yet elegant haystack measure from Ireland (around 1740); and a French charger awarded as a royal prize in 1815 presumably by King Louis XVIII.