The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art

John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

Sarasota, FL

941-359-5700

http://www.ringling.org/welcome.html

The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art announces that it will present a major exhibition, The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art, from December 15, 2000 through February 18, 2001 in the West Galleries. The Gilded Age features artists who brought a new sophistication and elegance into American art in the three decades before World War I.

Wealthy industrialists eager to acquire culture began to patronize native artists who had achieved international recognition. John Singer Sargent and Cecilia Beaux created portraits of these new patrons, while John LaFarge and Augustus Saint-Gaudens made luxurious adornments for their homes. One group of painters - including Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frederick Arthur Bridgman, and Henry Ossawa Tanner - responded especially to the fascination with exotic mid-eastern, Egyptian or "Oriental" cultures that characterized this age of international imperialism. The educated and refined aspect of Gilded Age culture is expressed in Renaissance-inspired paintings by Abbott Handerson Thayer and Mary Cassatt. Romantic literary works by visionary Albert Pinkham Ryder symbolize the idealized strivings of this generation, while the rugged landscapes of Winslow Homer emblemize the struggle and conflict that marked this period of contending social and industrial forces.

The Gilded Age touring itinerary is: Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee, June 23 August 27, 2000; The Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas, September 23 November 19, 2000; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, December 15, 2000 February 18, 2001; Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for the Visual Arts at Stanford University, Stanford, California, March 25 June 18, 2001; Philbrook Museum of Art, Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma, September 9 November 4, 2001; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, January 20 April 14, 2002; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California, August 9 October 6, 2002; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, November 2, 2002 January 12, 2003

Season 2000 exhibitions and programs are made possible in part by the Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax through the Board of County Commissioners, the Tourist Development Council and the Sarasota County Arts Council and the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council, and Museum donors.

Read more about the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Resource Library Magazine

For further biographical information on selected artists cited above please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.

rev. 11/26/10

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