The Exhibition Program incorporates major works from national and regional museums as well as works from the Academy Art Museum's own Permanent Collection, which consists of works on paper and contemporary works by American and European masters.

National collaborations have included work from the Smithsonian, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Vitra Design Museum, the Brandywine River Museum, Winterthur, the Walters Art Museum, Syracuse University, and the American Museum of Natural History.

European Tradition:  American Vision
April 12 – May 24, 2008

European Tradition:  American Vision features paintings and watercolors, comes from the Membership of the Plein-Air Painters of America (PAPA), a fellowship of professional artists dedicated to continuing the historic tradition of painting directly from life.

As such the plein-air tradition is rooted in the French Impressionist style of the late 19th century and had a particular appeal to American artists that continues today throughout the country. The practice of painting one’s immediate surroundings is rooted in the European tradition that dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century. Prior to that, western artists were expected to follow the academic system of employing formulaic approaches to render a landscape. In 1841 a British patent was granted for the collapsible tin tubes used to securely house oil paints. In essence, this invention coupled with the portable easel made art supplies readily available for painting outdoors (or en plein-air).

By the 1860s, as many artists began to reject a formal, academic approach to painting, a shift in subject matter appeared as well. Many French artists, most notably the Impressionists, often rejected the familiar academic subjects, including staged portraits and historical narratives, and chose instead to capture the fleeting effects of their prosaic environment. American Impressionists used a similar technique and shifted the emphasis to the beauty of one’s environment.

Whereas as some members of PAPA appear to emulate the French tradition of depicting working class subjects, such as a shipyard or one’s own backyard, others gravitate toward the majesty of the expansive landscape, an American tendency.

Currently, the PAPA membership spans from Maine to California with 14 states in between. The Academy Art Museum is pleased to present the work Plein Air Painters of America.

George Strickland, Moving Steel, oil.

European and American Prints:
Through to September 2008

The Impressionist Era features a selection of ten works, ranging from James McNeill Whistler Portrait of Drouet of 1859 to Frank W. Benson’s Rocky River from 1921 and demonstrates two trends that can be credited to the second half of the nineteenth century in Europe:  Impressionism and the revival of etching as a creative medium.

As painting outdoors (en plein-air) was gaining momentum in the United States and Europe, artists readily embraced the emerging style with its signature bravura brushwork and expanding subject matter including one’s mundane surroundings.  Nearly simultaneous to that development, Whistler and Seymour Haden in the 1850s were among the most influential British artists credited with revising etching, a form of printing, to an eager group of European and American artists. While mechanically produced etchings may not be done en plein-air, their imagery is dependent on the rapidly emerging style of the French and American Impressionists.

Frank Weston Benson (American, 1862-1951), Portrait of a Child, 1912.  Etching & Drypoint.  Collection of Academy Art Museum.  Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert K. Keller.

While the National Gallery of Art continues renovations of its American galleries, the Academy Art Museum will host paintings by the American Impressionists of the late 1800s and early 1900s, including works by Edmund Charles Tarbell (American, 1862-1938), Frank Weston Benson (American, 1862-1951), Frederick Childe Hassam (American, 1859-1935) and William Merritt Chase (American, 1849-1916) beginning October 19 and running through Spring 2008.

As Americans traveled abroad in increasing numbers toward the century's end, a newfound cosmopolitanism emerged. Avant-garde movements such as impressionism were embraced by American painters who found the style's look, if not its underlying theory, consistent with their artistic aims. Familiarity with traditional European art also may have inspired a renewed interest in still-life painting and aristocratic portraiture; the popularity of such paeans to wealth and acquisition reflects the prevailing spirit of materialism. By the late 1860s, a few French artists discovered that natural appearances differ greatly from the controlled light, careful detail, and balanced arrangement of works conceived in the studio. Their innovations of complex color brilliances, optical focus, and seemingly random compositions reached the United States by the mid-1880s. The French impressionists dealt candidly with the working and middle classes, whereas American impressionists favored portrayals of well-dressed, well-mannered high society. While the United States emerged as a world power at the turn of the twentieth century, many American painters and patrons sought sophistication by choosing such genteel subjects. Even in landscapes, American artists often selected picturesque views, such as gardens at moonrise or holiday promenades.

Frank Weston Benson (American, 1862 - 1951) Margaret (“Gretchen”) Strong, 1909, oil on canvas. Gift of the Elizabeth Clarke Hayes. National Gallery of Art 1992.66.1.

Annual Mid-Shore Student Art Exhibition

February 21 – March 29, 2008

This exhibition celebrates the artistic talents of students from Talbot, Caroline, Dorchester, and Queen Anne’s Counties as well as the area’s home school population.  The work of hundreds of budding young artists in every medium imaginable, including oils, watercolors, wood, plaster, cardboard and paper are featured.  This exhibition opens on Thursday, February 21 at 4pm with a reception.  The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

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