 The museum's exhibit features over 300 works of art, ranging from the early 1700s to the present, created by some of America's premier painters, photographers and sculptors. The exhibition is divided into the artistic periods before and after the year 1900. In the era prior to 1900, we focus on 19th Century landscapes and the Gilded Age and feature work by the artists Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and Winslow Homer. In a room devoted to portraits, Joseph Jacobs, the Newark Museum’s former curator of American arts, describes how traveling painters would create portraits of well-to-do farmers and businessmen, patterned after their romantic visions of European aristocracy. Around 1850, photographic portraits began to be made, and the range of people who could afford to have a likeness made of themselves expanded greatly. Ulysses S. Dietz, the Newark Museum’s curator of decorative arts, introduces the decorative and craft arts included in the exhibit. Dietz elaborates on the influence of 19th century foreign culture on arts in America, particularly that of Japan and the rest of Asia. Holly Pyne Connor, a consulting curator to the museum, also discusses the women’s movement in art around the turn of the century.
Moving into the 20th century, we see how artists reacted to a new world shaped by immigration, urbanization, and modernization. New York City became the American center for both of these social and artistic revolutions. One particular painting we examine is Joseph Stella's "Voice of the City of New York Interpreted," a vision of New York through a modernist's eyes. The monumental piece showcases the majesty and promise of early twentieth century New York.
Come along as State of the Arts takes you on an in-depth tour through this very special exhibition. |
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