BENTONVILLE - An important chapter in the history of modern art hangs on the walls of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
The influential American photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who died in 1946, played a vital role in the development of modernism. Along with pioneering the very notion of art photography, Stieglitz, through his New York galleries, was a tireless promoter of modern art, particularly artist she felt were creating an American approach to modernism: Georgia O’Keeffe, whom he would marry; Arthur Dove; John Marin; Marsden Hartley; Charles Demuth; and photographer Paul Strand.
“The Artists’ Eye: Georgia O’Keeffe and the Alfred Stieglitz Collection” brings 101 works of art that reflect that singular influence of Stieglitz and the artists he championed, along with works by the early European modernist painters, such as Paul Cezanne and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who were sources of inspiration for the Americans. The works of this exhibit were donated by O’Keeffe to Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., after her husband’s death. The museum and the university now share ownership in the collection and this exhibition launches that new collaboration, which rotates between the two institutions in two-year increments.
Once the viewer steps inside the special exhibition gallery, one gets a sense of the essence of Stieglitz’s collection and his vision. The walls in the first gallery mirror a shade of green Stieglitz favored and display a timeline and shelves of iPads with relevant information that keeps us in our present time while connecting us to his.
Especially memorable are several of the photographer’s wonderful cloud photos, part of a series known as Equivalents, which are mostly smaller in scale. He shot hundreds of photos to capture the clouds’ forms, patterns and shapes with no sense of place or direction. These abstracts seemed to be seeking to reveal the essence of creation. We see one of the greatest images in American photography, 1907’s The Steerage, of lower class passengers at a ship’s bow. Stieglitz took the photo on a trip from New York to Europe.
Two other galleries focus on African art and the painters that Stieglitz supported.
The gallery with the African art, particularly the masks, brings home the very real impact these stylized forms had on the modernists, European and American alike. Stieglitz played a role in changing our view of African masks and sculpture, from looking at objects to gain insight on particular cultures to respecting the objects themselves as art. The gallery’s works include 19th-century masks from the Ivory Coast and a 19th-century reliquary-guardian figure from Gabon.
O’Keeffe’s oil on canvas, Mask with Golden Apple, from 1923 underscores that artist’s admiration of these forms.
The third gallery contains an assortment of artists’ works Stieglitz valued, collected and showed. The walls are painted a shade of pink, a color O’Keeffe favored for the Fisk galleries to show the work. And, as unexpected a color as it is, it is a superb background for this diverse collection.
There are many fascinating works, but O’Keeffe’s stunning cityscape Radiator Building - Night, New York draws the viewer back again and again; the luminous, magnetic 1927 oil on canvas is one of her most exciting and important paintings.
Other memorable works are Arthur Garfield Dove’s haunting 1928 oil on board work Moon, Charles Demuth’s 1916 cubist watercolor Tree Forms, Marsden Hartley’s 1909 oil on board Landscape No. 19 and John Marin’s 1917 watercolor Tree. For lovers of European artists, there are fascinating works by Cezanne, Paul Signac, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec.
One of the coolest things about this exhibition is the presence of a microsite on Crystal Bridges’ website, theartistseye.crystalbridges.org, which presents all works in the exhibition and loads of information and insight.There’s also a wonderful smartphone app. Additionally, there is an informative kiosk with interactive touch screen.
The museum has offered an array of activities in conjunction with the exhibition; remaining events are listed on the museum’s website.
But don’t tarry. This excellent exhibition’s final day is Feb. 3.
“The Artists’ Eye: Georgia O’Keeffe and the Alfred Stieglitz Collection,” through Feb. 3, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville. Admission: $5; free for members and ages 18 and under. Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday and Thursday; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; closed Tuesday. Info: crystalbridges.org, (479) 418-5700.
BRIEFLY …
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial cartoonist John Deering will be the guest speaker at a reception for “The Presidents,” an exhibit of drawings by late Arkansas Gazette editorial cartoonist George Fisher. The reception is at 6 p.m. Friday at William F. Laman Public Library System main library, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock. The exhibit is from the Arkansas Arts Center Library Collection of George Fisher Cartoons.
The exhibit hangs through Jan. 19. Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Info: lamanlibrary. org, (501) 758-1720.
Pottery lovers should not miss “Glazed With Fire: Ceramics by Joe Bruhin” currently showing at The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 701 Main St., Pine Bluff. The exhibition of Arkansas artist Bruhin’s wood-fired works continues through Feb. 24.
Bruhin’s firing is rooted in Japanese pottery, which is fired over 10 days. At the end, the pottery’s glaze comes from the wood, the clay and ash of the firing. The Fox resident has exhibited throughout the United States.
The museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m Monday-Friday, 1-4 p.m. Saturday. Info: artssciencecenter.org, (870) 536-3375.
If you’re planning to enjoy Friday’s Second Friday Art Night in downtown Little Rock, it’s a good chance to catch two shows at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies: The Arkansas Pastel Society’s National Juried Exhibition, which continues through Feb. 22, and “Unusual Portraits: New Works by Michael Warrick and David O’Brien,” an exploration in portraiture.
The Butler Center, part of the Central Arkansas Library System, is at 401 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. Hours: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Info: www.butlercenter.org; (501) 320-5700.
Neal Harrington, associate professor of art at Arkansas Tech University, Russellville, will attend an opening reception of his new exhibit of original prints, “Music, Myth & The Hard Travelin’ Man” at Cantrell Gallery. The reception is at 6 p.m. Friday at Cantrell Gallery, 8206 Cantrell Road, Little Rock.
Harrington, a past winner of a Delta Award from the Delta Exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center, also is gallery director at Arkansas Tech. The exhibit hangs through March 1. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Info: cantrellgallery.com, (501) 224-1335.
Style, Pages 45 on 01/05/2014