The AAM (and the LV) are Linked to a Global Art Earth

A recent exhibition at the Art Museum not only exemplifies AAM's global perspective and significance but also spotlights the Lehigh Valley'south connection to the larger fine art world through the Museum. After a two-year research and evaluation procedure, the AAM was chosen to be one of viii partner museums around the state to participate in a collection sharing and exhibition development programme with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

This groundbreaking initiative—funded by Art Bridges and the Terra Foundation for American Art—is designed to increment access to American art by sharing treasures from renowned collections with communities across Pennsylvania. The AAM's inclusion in the program, as well equally the works it regularly lends to art institutions throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America, are evidence of the significance of your art museum and its collection both at home and abroad.

Art as Bridge to the World

Biagio d'Antonio Tucci (Italian, 1446-1516), Madonna and Child with Saints, ca. 1490, tempera and gold leaf on pane. Allentown Art Museum: Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1960. (1960.15)

While the Museum has received loans from the Philadelphia Museum of Fine art in the past, the Art Bridges programme provides financial back up then this type of sharing can happen on a more regular basis. The program too fosters creative collaboration between the two institutions and connects the Lehigh Valley to the greater Philadelphia surface area through this cultural commutation.

The exhibition— Development of the Spiritual: Europe to America (open until September 6, 2020)—features European Renaissance art from the AAM's Kress Collection, Spanish Colonial art of Latin America from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and twentieth-century U.Due south. art from both institutions to expand the idea of what comprises American art.

"We wanted to claiming the conventional definition of American fine art and explore its diverseness past showing the progression of a single subject, in this case the Virgin Mary, through the influences of unlike cultures," says Elaine Mehalakes, the AAM's vice president of curatorial affairs and curator of the exhibition.

"The Allentown exhibit has blended and reinterpreted ideas coming from Europe to the Americas to reveal how everything is continued," according to Josephine Shea, curatorial coordinator of the Art Bridges + Terra Foundation Initiative with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

"The installation explores American art in a global context, making visible these connections and showing how they continue into the contemporary movement."
–Josephine Shea, Curatorial Coordinator of the Art Bridges + Terra Foundation Initiative, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Shea characterizes the Allentown Art Museum as a "top-level museum" and a "very impressive partner."

"By looking at American art more broadly, we'll exist able to see how the complex influences of trade, migration, clearing, and cultural exchanges over hundreds of years and effectually the globe have shaped American experiences," says Mehalakes. "Information technology'southward an artificial construct to recall of the art of our country separately from all the history and cultures that have come before, or even to call up of information technology as a uncomplicated progression from Europe to the The states," she adds.

The exhibition aims to make audiences call back about how our country and our community is intertwined with that larger history. "Information technology really opens your eyes to the fact that nosotros are non an isolated culture," Mehalakes says, "and makes us more than enlightened of the influences on today'due south works of art."

Evolution of the Spiritual: Europe to America features loans from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and was made possible by generous support of art donors at each museum and past the Art Bridges and Terra Foundation for American Fine art collection-sharing initiative.

Acquiring New Perspectives

Angela Fraleigh (American, b. 1976), And so we'll walk right upwards to the sunday, 2016, oil, acrylic, marker, canvas. Courtesy of the artist. Allentown Art Museum: Purchase. Priscilla Payne Hurd Endowment Fund, 2019. (2019.xi)

As well, the Museum'due south agile acquisitions program highlights its commitment to introducing globally focused, innovative, and compelling art to our audiences. Take for example one recent acquisition, Angela Fraleigh's And and so we'll walk right up to the dominicus, 2016, made of oil, acrylic, and marker on canvass.

Fraleigh has a studio in Allentown and is the chairperson of the Moravian Higher art department, only her work has garnered attention beyond the Lehigh Valley, including solo exhibitions in New York State, Houston, and Philadelphia. The acquisition of And and so nosotros'll walk right upwards to the sun furthers the Museum's goals of fostering the local arts customs while also collecting works that participate in dialogues on problems engaging the national and international art globe today.

Fraleigh painted the two women in this work afterward figures past French creative person Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904), who was known for imagery that affirmed Western fantasies of the Middle East as a place of sensuality, violence, and submissiveness. In doing so, Fraleigh retrieves such women from the sidelines of respected historic works, giving them new life in her awe-inspiring paintings. Her works center these characters as the heroes of the story.

The background of And and then we'll walk correct upward to the sun quotes from ukiyo-e prints by the Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806). In Fraleigh's eyes, Utamaro's depictions of women raising silkworms or socializing in the pleasure districts of Edo evoke a space of all-female community, power, and possible insurrection. The incorporation of these prints creates a dreamlike, otherworldly setting for the figures, encouraging viewers to be curious nigh how these women ended up here and enquire questions that will lead them to meliorate understand Fraleigh'due south intent.

In its combination of realism and the stylized ukiyo-e aesthetic, Fraleigh'south painting advocates different modes of viewing the earth, paralleling the Museum's goal of encouraging visitors to consider new perspectives. When it goes on display, And then we'll walk right up to the sun will engage stylistically with earlier works in the American collection, encouraging new and critical understandings of these paintings from a contemporary signal of view. The feminist and anticolonial messages backside this piece of work tin also be connected to other artists in the drove, such as Joan Snyder, Yinka Shonibare, Faith Ringgold, or Wendy Cherry-red Star.

AAM around the World

Finally, the importance of the AAM in the larger art world is regularly underscored by the quality and quantity of works loaned to be featured in significant exhibitions around the world.

"The Allentown Art Museum has a global footprint," says Mehalakes, "which is possible considering of the inimitable works of art we have to share with other institutions as a result of our donors' generosity."

Referring to the recent Bernard van Orley loan to the BOZAR in Kingdom of belgium, Mehalakes says that when the Museum loans out a piece of art from its own collections, she's "struck by seeing it in the context of a major exhibition of that creative person's masterpieces from all over the world."

"And when the artwork comes back dwelling house, we desire to celebrate its render by highlighting information technology in the gallery," Mehalakes continues. "We desire our members to take a wait at it with fresh eyes knowing that it has received scholarly and popular attention elsewhere."

Recent loans from the Allentown Art Museum Drove

Bernard Van Orley (Flemish, ca. 1488-1541), Portrait of a Admirer, ca. 1520, oil on panel. Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961. Appeared in Bernard van Orley: Brussels and the Renaissance at BOZAR, Eye for the Arts, Brussels, Belgium.

John Baldessari (American, born 1931), Size/Shape (Destiny), 1988/89, gelatin silver print and acrylic paint. Gift of John and Fannie Saeger, 1989. Appeared in Learning to Read with John Baldessari at Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico.

Peter Grippe (American, 1912-2002), Man with Hammer, 1941, terra cotta. The Grippe Collection, 2009. Appeared in Leap Before Y'all Await. Black Mountain College, 1933-1957 at the Institute of Gimmicky Fine art, Boston, MA; the Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas.

Lorenzo Lotto (Venetian, c. 1480-1556), Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, 1515, oil on canvas. Samuel H. Kress Drove, 1960. Appeared in Bergamo in the Renaissance Seen through the Eyes of Marcantonio Michiel at the Adriano Bernareggi Museum, Bergamo, Italian republic.

Harry Bertoia (American, 1915-1978). Double Branched Gongs, 1970/71, bronze canvas and welded bronze. Gift of Audrey and Bernard Berman, 1982. Appearing in Harry Bertoia· Sculpting Mid-Century Modern Life at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas

Featured image: Marsden Hartley (American. 1877-1943). Approval the Melon (The Indians Bring the Harvest to Christian Mary for Her Blessing), c. 1918, oil on paperboard. Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949. (1949–18-thirteen)

This commodity originally ran in the winter 2019 issue of Synergy Mag, the magazine for Museum members. Go a Museum member today.