American Artists in the Southwest from the Melanson Holt Collection
Last updated on January 01, 2021
American Artists in the Southwest from the Melanson Holt Collection & American Paintings and Drawings from the Melanson Holt Collection
The Mennello Museum of American Art is pleased to announce the opening of two new exhibitions American Artists in the Southwest from the Melanson Holt Collection & American Paintings and Drawings from the Melanson Holt Collection. These exhibitions will be on view at the Mennello Museum from January 22 through April 11, 2021.
The exhibitions and accompanying catalog showcase 35 masterful painters and printmakers who worked in media from oil and watercolor painting to lithography, etching, aquatint, woodblock, and screen-printing. The artists of American Artists in the Southwest reveal transcendent desert light, remote lands, and extraordinary way of life. Included are E. Martin Hennings, Kenneth Adams, Gustave Baumann, O.E. Berninghaus, and William Shuster, artists with ties to the New Mexican Art Colonies in Taos and Santa Fe, as well as Gene Kloss, Harrison Begay, Pop Chalee, Dole Reed, and Rockwell Kent among others. American Paintings and Drawings features work by daring early American Modernists, Regionalists, and Abstractionists from Max Weber and Alfred Mauer, to Charles Burchfield and Reginald Marsh, and to Emil Bisttram and Arthur Dove.
Katherine Page, Mennello Museum Curator of Art and Education, states:
The selection of works in these exhibitions reflect a roster of renowned artists with ties to the Southwest and New Mexico - predominantly Realistic painters and illustrators living and working in one of the Taos and Santa Fe New Mexican art colonies – including some who had been largely marginalized in art historical discourse including indigenous and women artists. She continues, American Artists in the Southwest and American Paintings and Drawings span a significant period of artistic production and change in the United States for our audiences to examine a multitude of media as well as to explore Modern American artists’ stylistic and theoretical developments from the 1890s – 2000s with strong examples of work created Between the World Wars.
The overarching cultural context of American Artists in the Southwest & American Paintings and Drawings lies in the broadening art world of the early 20th century in the United States. Marking the dawn of Modernism in the US, the Armory exhibition of 1913 introduced several European impressionists, cubists, fauvists, and avant-garde artists that would long influence Modern Art making in the United States – shaking up the American art world from its insistence on pure realism as dictated through academic training toward more theoretical ideas of expression, abstraction, social realism, industry, and regionalism.
At the turn of the last century, American artists from the east coast art worlds in New York and Pennsylvania were also drawn by an adventurous journey Southwestward. They were first brought to the Southwest as professional illustrators hired to document the stunning vistas for marketing the tourism of new railroad systems and continental westward expansion of a growing United States. The artists were quickly enraptured by the opportunity to reveal to their audiences back home the awe-inspiring desert colors and extraordinary ways of life of those connected to this uniquely American landscape. American Artists in the Southwest explores the first generation of Anglo artists settling in an already established Southwest, the Post World War I influx of a second-generation of artists, writers, and thinkers from the coasts to the Southwest during the Depression era, through World War II, and America’s evolution into Modernism. Early 20th century themes of landscape and culture of the Southwest are explored by the artists presented.
Shannon Fitzgerald, Executive Director Shares:
It has been most rewarding working with Robert Melanson over several years learning about his collection and graciously accepting so many wonderful gifts of art for the permanent collection of the museum. I am grateful for Robert’s generosity that led to this important exhibition that also speaks to the importance of our museum expansion enabling the best facilities for the stewardship of our collection and further cultivation of gifts.
The Melanson Holt Collection gifts, made from 2017-2019 in honor of Frank Holt, Mennello Museum of American Art Founding Director, as well as the accompanying exhibitions further the museum’s story of American art, acknowledging the beauty and wonder of the land and people of the Southwest. If the print collection highlights Holt’s eye and admiration for traditional Southwestern themes of landscape and figuration, then the paintings in the collection further this appreciation and reflect Melanson’s personal interests in collecting philosophically inspired Modernist and abstract work by artists of the same period, many of whom also found boundless inspiration in the Southwest.
American Artists in the Southwest & American Paintings and Drawings from the Melanson Holt Collection. are curated by Katherine Page, Curator of Art and Education.
You’re Invited!
Opening Reception: American Artists in the Southwest & American Paintings and Drawings from the Melanson Holt Collection
Friday January 22, 2021
Members Only Preview
5:30 – 6:30 pm
Public Reception
6:30 – 8:30 pm
Southwestern Delights by Runways Catering
Music by The Steaming Trio
Face coverings will be required in the museum
Tickets
Free for Mennello Museum Members
$10 for Future Members
Purchase Tickets at http://bit.ly/2Lux6cH
Or call 407.246.4278
During this event, we are utilizing timed ticketing to keep within current capacity limits. All attendees must register for a ticket time. Enjoy food & drinks in the Sculpture Garden while you wait.
Current Members: Please check your email or call 407.246.4278 for your free admission(s) code. Contact Ayana Pérez with membership of ticketing questions.
The Mennello Museum of American Art and its exhibitions are generously supported by the City of Orlando and Friends of the Mennello Museum of American Art. Additional funding is provided by Orange County Government through the Arts & Cultural Affairs Program and United Arts of Central Florida. Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and Visit Orlando. This exhibition and accompanying catalog is funded in part by the generous donors to Frank Holt Fund, Strengthen Orlando, City of Orlando.
The Mennello Museum of American Art is city owned and operated.
Image Credit: Pop Chalee (aka, Merina Lujan; American, 1908 - 1993), Untitled (Blue Horse), n.d. Silkscreen of gouache on paper. Collection of the Mennello Museum of American Art, Gift of Robert Melanson in memory of Frank Holt, Founding Director, 2018-005-009.