Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Left photo: David Graham, Right photo: Nathan Benn
Philadelphia, PA
215-972-7600
American Watercolors at the Pennsylvania Academy
"American Watercolors at the
Pennsylvania Academy" opens October 14, 2000 and runs through January
7, 2001 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. This major exhibition
of rarely displayed objects will bring together for the first time in the
history of PAFA the highlights of more 
than a century of watercolor collecting. "American
Watercolors at the Pennsylvania Academy" will feature over 120 watercolors
by nearly as many artists spanning more than two centuries of styles, from
the neoclassicism of Benjamin West to the abstraction of Robert Motherwell
and beyond. Drawn primarily from the Museum's permanent holdings, as well
as from a few select local private collections, this exhibition will offer
visitors a special opportunity to view some of the finest watercolors in
the Philadelphia area. (left: Winslow Homer, North Road, Bermuda,
1900, watercolor and pencil on white wove paper, Partial gift of Mrs. John
Wintersteen)
"American Watercolors at the Pennsylvania Academy" will present works by some of the most celebrated watercolorists in the history of American art, including Winslow Homer , Thomas Eakins, William Trost Richards, Cecilia Beaux, John Singer Sargent, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Charles Demuth, Arthur G. Dove, John Marin, Edward Hopper, Charles Burchfield, and Andrew Wyeth.
It is especially significant that the Academy is organizing
this exhibition for the fall of 2000, the 
year in which the Philadelphia Water Color Club celebrates
its centennial anniversary. Founded in 1900, the Philadelphia Water Color
Club co-sponsored the annual Philadelphia Water Color Exhibition, held at
the Academy from its inception in 1904 until 1969, when the Academy ceased
all of its Annual Exhibitions. These juried exhibitions, from which the
Museum acquired many of its graphic treasures, were among the most prestigious
of their kind in the United States and regularly included watercolor paintings
by the aforementioned artists. (right; Charles Demuth, Box of
Tricks, 1919, gouache and graphite on cardboard, Pennsylvania Academy
of the Fine Arts)
Works by all of these watercolorists will be featured in "American Watercolors at the Pennsylvania Academy," as well as examples by other renowned practitioners, including Stuart Davis, Hans Hoffman, Franz Kline, Milton Avery, Jacob Lawrence, Sam Gilliam, and many more. By highlighting those artists who were Water Color Club members, as well as those who participated in the Academy's watercolor annuals, the exhibition will demonstrate PAFA's crucial historical role in cultivating the production, display, and collection of watercolor painting both regionally and nationally.
"American
Watercolors at the Pennsylvania Academy" organized by Jonathan P. Binstock,
Assistant Curator, will serve as a major exhibition of 2000 and PAFA's first
large-scale scholarly project since the critically acclaimed blockbuster,
Maxfield Parrish, 1870-1966 (summer 1999). A variety of adult and
family educational programming--lectures, gallery talks, symposia, performances--will
accompany its presentation, as well as a fully illustrated catalogue with
an essay by art historian and former Academy Curator of Collections Kathleen
A. Foster, recipient of the College Art Association's 1998 Eric Mitchell
Prize in Art History for her book, Thomas Eakins Rediscovered (Pennsylvania
Academy and Yale University Press, 1997). (left: Jacob Lawrence,
Images of Labor, 1980, gouache on paper, Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts)
Read more about the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Resource Library Magazine.
Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line to see enlargements.
For further biographical information on selected artists cited above please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
This page was originally published in Resource Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for more information. rev. 3/2/11
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