NEW IN THE GALLERIES

 

This summer the featured print on view in the SOTA Foyer is “March,” a lithograph by American painter and printmaker Grant Wood (1891–1942). Wood, who is most closely associated with the American Regionalism movement, is best known for his stylized depictions of the rural American Midwest. Wood had never made lithographic prints before 1937, when the dealer Reeves Lewenthal of Associated American Artists arranged for him and several other prominent artists, including Wood’s fellow Regionalists Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry, to produce a series of inexpensive lithographs. This democratic idea appealed to Wood, whose scenes of Midwestern farms and people typified the Regionalist style and appealed to a broad public. The stark and windy spring landscape that Wood captured in this lithograph, a purchase of the SOTA Print Fund, is characteristic of the “American scene” work for which he is best known.

Textiles hold and tell stories. They may be seen in the images and words printed or embroidered on textiles or in patterns and symbols that conceal hidden meanings just waiting to be found. The messages can be personal, political, historical or just plain playful.

“Talking Textiles,” the most recent installation in the lobby showcase and elsewhere in the museum, uses examples from the museum’s extensive textile collection to highlight some of the many messages that capture a sense of the varied stories that textiles can impart. The installation will be on view throughout the summer.

“Here Come the Brides”
Bridal gowns from 1902, 1930 and 1945 take center stage in a mini-installation celebrating a half-century of bridal style. The three gowns, part of a recent gift of costume to the museum by Bucks County artist Susan Opie, were worn by Opie’s grandmother, mother and aunt and offer a fresh look at the bridal fashions of their time. Period photographs of the brides in their wedding finery will accompany the exhibition, scheduled for installation in the lobby alcove in early June.

Trexler Gallery Reinstallation
The Allentown Art Museum's Trexler Gallery recently received a bright new look with an exciting reinstallation coordinated by Robert Mattison, the museum's curator-at-large for modern and contemporary art and professor of art history at Lafayette College. This new installation affords us the opportunity to view a number of rarely seen modern works from the museum's permanent collection by such prominent figures as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. It also highlights the acquisition of a major woodcut by the promiment African American artist, Elizabeth Catlett, and a gift of paintings to the museum by Ryo Tokita, an artist of regional and national reputation.

The new installation also includes several important pieces on loan to the museum from dealers, collectors and the artists themselves. Six evocative photographs by renowned photographer Diane Arbus (1923-1971) are on loan from the substantial holdings of local collector David Sestak. Sam Gilliam (b. 1933), one of the senior artists in America, has lent the museum a stunning color abstraction, and Loretta Howard of Jacobson Howard Gallery in New York arranged a loan of the preparatory model for "Black Lightning," a monumental minimalist work by the artist Ronald Bladen (1918-1988). In addition, local photographer Theo Anderson has lent a large-scale compelling photograph of the Bethlehem Steel works that pits compositional precisions against industrial decay. This reinsallation of the Trexler Gallery and plans for the modern galleries after the museum addition is completed emphasize the many different ways the story of modernism can be told.

  

Image captions: (top): Grant Wood, American (1891-1942). "March," 1939, published 1941, lithograph on wove paper. Purchase: SOTA Print Fund, 1967. (middle): Maker Unknown, American. detail Dress Fabric, 1932, printed rayon plain weave. Gift of Kate Fowler Merle-Smith, 1978. On view in "Talking Textiles." (bottom) Maker unknown. Two-Piece Wedding Dress with Veil, 1902, silk faille, silk gauze, silk embroidery, velvet edging; underskirt: cotton, cotton embroidery; veil: silk net with artificial orange blossoms; stockings: silk knit. Gift of Susan Opie, 2009. On view in "Here Come the Brides."
 
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