Tampa, FL (April 6, 2015) ─ The Tampa Museum of Art is pleased to announce an exciting lineup of exhibitions scheduled to begin their debut on June 13, 2015.
Acting Director Seth Pevnick stated, “As we continue to enjoy our current special exhibition, American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell, we look forward to summer and fall, when we will bring three very different but equally moving exhibitions to the Museum. From Rockwell, one of the most popular American artists of the twentieth century, we begin to explore the work of nearly 50 of his most important American predecessors, with Scenery, Story, Spirit: American Painting and Sculpture from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, followed by In Living Color, a colorful collection of prints by Andy Warhol and other post-WWII artists associated with the American pop art movement. Finally, with XTO + J-C, opening September 26, we look at another artist whose work invites viewers to rethink the everyday, initially with early works that concealed common objects, then with monumental projects interacting with entire buildings and landscapes. With these three diverse shows and our continued commitment to the art of classical antiquity—on view now and throughout 2015—we aim to fulfill an important part of our mission, to ‘present the finest visual arts for a curious public.’”
Scenery, Story, Spirit: American Painting and Sculpture from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art
On view June 13 through September 6, 2015
Between the 1830s and the end of the First World War, American art came into its own. From the majestic Hudson River School paintings of Thomas Cole, John Kensett, and Albert Bierstadt to the gritty urban realism of Robert Henri and John Sloan, this presentation draws on the rich holdings of American paintings and sculptures in the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. This selection of more than 50 paintings and eight sculptures highlights the maturation of a distinctly American idiom, one informed by international currents and engaged with capturing the fluxes of modern life. Masterpieces of landscape, genre, still-life, and portraiture, punctuated by a selection of sculptures, trace an evolution in style from an art driven by the mandates of westward expansion to one animated by experimentation. In both idealized and naturalistically rendered landscapes, in scenes of everyday life, or meticulously detailed images of everyday objects, the presentation also narrates an important chapter in American cultural history that witnessed the Civil War and its aftermath, the expansion of national boundaries and the closing of the western frontier, and the transformations wrought by the emergence of new technologies at the dawn of the 20th century.
In Living Color: Andy Warhol and Contemporary Printmaking from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation
On view June 20 through September 20, 2015
Andy Warhol (1928–1987) depicted the world with the volume turned up. Employing a seemingly endless palette, his work has challenged our perceptions of popular culture, politics, and consumerism for more than fifty years. Warhol was the central figure of American pop art, a movement that emerged in the late 1950s in reaction to the heroism of abstract expressionism. Warhol and his contemporaries sought to eradicate the notion of the “genius artist” and downplay the role of originality in art, adopting mechanical means of generating images such as screenprinting, which theoretically allowed for an endless reproduction of images. In drawing inspiration from the rapidly changing world around them, pop artists sought to be more inclusive in their subjects, and more aware of the day-to-day conditions of contemporary existence.
Spanning three decades of Warhol’s career, this exhibition features some of the artist’s most iconic screenprints, including his portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Mao Zedong, the splashy camouflage series, and the controversial Electric Chair portfolio. Drawn exclusively from the rich collections of Jordan Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, In Living Color is divided into five sections—experimentation, emotion, experience, subversion, and attitude. In each, Warhol’s work is placed in conversation with that of other artists of the postwar era who use color as a tool to shape how we interpret and respond to images; these include Louise Bourgeois, Chuck Close, Keith Haring, and Frank Stella.
More than twenty years after his death, Andy Warhol remains one of the most influential figures in contemporary art and culture. Warhol’s life and work inspires creative thinkers worldwide thanks to his enduring imagery, his artfully cultivated celebrity, and the ongoing research of dedicated scholars. His impact as an artist is far deeper and greater than his one prescient observation that “everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” His omnivorous curiosity resulted in an enormous body of work that spanned every available medium and most importantly contributed to the collapse of boundaries between high and low culture.
XTO + J-C: Christo and Jeanne-Claude Featuring Works from the Bequest of David C. Copley
On view September 26, 2015 through January 3, 2016
Christo is best known for the monumental projects he and his late wife and collaborator Jeanne-Claude accomplished over nearly four decades. These include the 24 1/2 mile-long Running Fence in California’s Sonoma and Marin Counties (1976), the Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin (1995), and the epic-scale crowd pleaser The Gates (2005), which comprised 7,053 fabric banners that spanned the walkways of New York’s Central Park.
XTO+J-C will present the artist’s important Wrapped Package (1960) alongside many drawings and collages related to his early wrapped objects—chairs, road signs, motorcycles, and other commonplace items that disrupt our relationship to the everyday through their concealment. The exhibition also includes Christo’s large-scale Store Front (1965–66) and a related series of Show Windows from the early ‘70s, which signal an expansion of the artist’s sculptural practice to a new environmental realm.
Taken together, this exhibition features more than fifty works by Christo, and also highlights recent gifts from The David C. Copley Foundation and from the artist himself, in recognition of Copley’s patronage and support of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego over the years. The late David C. Copley (1952–2012) was the most prolific collector of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work in the United States.
XTO+J-C: Christo and Jeanne-Claude Featuring Works from the Bequest of David C. Copley is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Underwriting support has been generously provided by Colette Carson Royston and Dr. Ivor Royston, the David C. Copley Foundation, and the Friends of David C. Copley underwriting group. XTO+J-C is proudly supported by Van Cleef & Arpels, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Symbolic Motor Car Company.
About the Tampa Museum of Art
The Tampa Museum of Art opened its award-winning new home in 2010 with a commitment to providing innovative public programs with a strong focus on classical, modern, and contemporary art. The Museum balances a growing collection, including one of the largest Greek and Roman antiquities collections in the southeastern United States, with a dynamic annual schedule of special exhibitions. It is the region’s largest museum devoted to art of our time and has built a reputation for embracing contemporary photography and new media; most notably, Leo Villareal’s Sky (Tampa), the 14,000-square-foot LED installation on the Museum’s south façade, has become an iconic image for Tampa. Since its founding in 1979, the Museum has been dedicated to providing quality education to students and adults, with more than half of its programs offered free of charge. The Museum is home to Sono Café, a Slow Food movement café overlooking the Hillsborough River, and has emerged as Tampa’s premier venue for special events.
General Hours and Information
The Museum opens daily at 11 a.m. Hours of operation are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.; Fridays from 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. The Museum’s phone number is 813.274.8130 and the website is www.tampamuseum.org. The Museum’s address is 120 W. Gasparilla Plaza. Tampa, FL 33602.