Category Archives: 2023

2023, art front, featured, upcoming

In Nature’s Studio

TWO CENTURIES OF AMERICAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING (OCTOBER 6, 2023 – JANUARY 15, 2024)

This rich exhibition features the bounty and beauty of the American landscape from the early nineteenth century through the twentieth century. Drawn from the permanent collection of the Reading Public Museum, the selections explore the Hudson River School and the emergence of the first uniquely American artistic movement; Impressionism and Tonalism at the turn of the century; and Modern trends in interpreting the landscape. Majestic and inspirational depictions of bucolic American vistas—intimate forest interiors, sweeping panoramic views of natural wonders, and dramatic images of the untamed land and sea—join dramatic scenes of Europe, the Near East, and South America by artists from the United States.

In Nature’s Studio: Two Centuries of American Landscape Paintings is organized by Reading Public Museum.

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.

(TOP) Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826 – 1900), Syria: Ruins by the Sea, 1873 – 1874, oil on canvas, 10 1/2 x 16 inches, Museum Purchase, 1922.157.1. Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania.  

(BOTTOM) George Wesley Bellows, The Launching, 1913, oil on panel, Museum Purchase through the Levi Mengel Memorial Fund, 1951.63.1, Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania.

2023

Temporary Closure

Pardon our Appearances! The Mennello Museum of American Art will be closed for the installation of our newest exhibition, Impression and Reality, from February 14 – 17, 2023.

2023, art front, current exhibit, featured

Anila Quayyum Agha: Flourishing Patterns

June 23 – September 24, 2023  

Anila Quayyum Agha is a Pakistani-American artist best known for her large-scale installations of elaborate, laser cut cubes. Suspended from above as though floating, and lit from within, the cubes cast lace-like, floor-to-ceiling shadows that completely transform the surrounding environment, flooding the space with allusions to the sacred geometric designs that developed across cultures and religions – especially those found in Islamic tradition and the richly ornamented public spaces, like Mosques, where Agha was excluded from as a female growing up in Lahore, Pakistan. Agha also creates wall-mounted sculptural works and drawings in which she employs embroidery, beads, and light to transcend the flat, two-dimensional plane on which she works.

Anila Quayyum Agha is organized by the Mennello Museum of American Art and curated by Katherine Page, Curator of Art and Education, Mennello Museum of American Art.

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.

Anila Quayyum Agha, Crossing Boundaries – Nuvo Red, n.d. Laser-cut lacquered steel and halogen bulb; Edition: 1/3. 48 x 48 x 48 inches. Courtesy of Anila Quayuum Agha and Sundaram Tagore Gallery

Photography Jim Hobart MacBeth Studio

2023, past, press releases

Impression and Reality

Paintings of American Impressionism and Realism from the Mennello collection alongside important works from prestigious Florida museums. 

February 25 – June 11, 2023

From the late 1800s through the 1920s, two important stylistic movements of early 20th century Art History coexisted – American Impressionism and Realism. These artists’ styles overlapped in time and a loose, impressionistic brushstroke, but transected in their subject matter. Today, those paintings highlight the diversity of American artists’ experiences, mentorships, training, and location at the turn of the century, all while industrializing city centers of the United States – Philadelphia, Boston, and New York – were exponentially expanding. Impression and Reality considers the dichotomy between these two cooccurring philosophies – one that highlights light, nature, and the temporary pleasures or luxuries of life, and the other that emphasizes the harsh, strenuous conditions of ordinary life in the growing urban cities.

Mennello Museum of American Art is delighted to showcase 34 paintings and 3 works on paper by the most celebrated artists of the early 20th century art in the United States. Preeminent artists of their time on display include artists like John White Alexander, Frederick Carl Frieseke, and Henry Salem Hubbell alongside lesser known, but equally important contemporaries Lydia Field Emmett, Jane Peterson, and Lilla Cabot Perry – to name a few.

This exhibition brings together beloved artists from collections across Florida including the Mennello Museum’s own collection, the Marilyn and Michael Mennello Foundation, and significant loans from the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Harn Museum of Art, Museum of Florida History, Rollins Museum of Art, Tampa Museum of Art.

In total, the exhibition considers artists’ interests in depicting experiences of life in urban and bucolic landscapes, their interest in domesticated and wild subjects in the natural world at home and abroad, ­as well as the social mores and representation of women. These reflections implore the necessity to highlight under-recognized women who were also creating, marketing, and participating in these movements. 

Lilla Cabot Perry,Le Paravent Jaune (The Yellow Screen),1907.Oil on canvas.Courtesy ofThe Michael A. and The Honorable Marilyn Logsdon Mennello Foundation.

Karl J. Anderson, The Green Pitcher, 1913. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of The Michael A. and The Honorable Marilyn Logsdon Mennello Foundation.

Robert Henri, Ann of Achill, 1913. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Mennello Museum of American Art, Gift of Michael A. Mennello in memory of the Honorable Marilyn Logsdon Mennello, 2018-002-014.