Strokes of Genius: Masterworks from the New Britain Museum of American Art

Wednesday, January 19, 2005 thru Sunday, March 20, 2005 Museum Hours

The Telfair Museum of Art has become an invaluable confluence of arts, culture and history that reaches out to its audience through a diverse schedule of exhibitions and programs. Currently among Savannah's most-visited attractions, this museum is is becoming even more popular with the opening of its third venue, the Jepson Center for the Arts.

The Telfair presents highlights from the highly respected American art collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut. The first institution in the country to focus solely on American art, the New Britain is traveling its diverse collection while its historic building undergoes renovation.

Ranging from mid-eighteenth century portraits by Joseph Badger to the postmodern conceptual work of Christo (left), the works represented in Strokes of Genius conjure up a portrait of America itself. The history of our country is encapsulated in these works, from colonial portraiture reflecting British taste and traditions, to the homegrown subject matter of Midwestern Regionalism, to the breakaway aesthetic of Abstract Expressionism, sometimes considered the first truly American art movement.

In addition to 18th- and early 19th-century portraits, the exhibition includes landscapes by Thomas Doughty, Asher Brown Durand (below) and Sanford Gifford representing the dramatic Hudson River School tradition. American naturalism is evidenced by the genre paintings of Winslow Homer and Henry Ossawa Tanner, and American impressionism, by a significant number of works from its leading practitioners, including Childe Hassam and Frederick Carl Frieseke.

Early 20th-century works by Ashcan School artists such as Robert Henri and William Glackens, who rejected the gentility of American impressionism for the gritty, vital reality of urban America, are featured along with early modernist works by Maurice Prendergast and Charles Sheeler, which signal an awareness of European avante-garde movements. Also featured are Regionalist works of the 1930s by John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood, who infused their Middle American subject matter with a dash of the heroic. Social realism is represented by a powerful work from Jacob Lawrence, perhaps the most influential African American artist of the 20th century.

Works by Adolph Gottlieb and Louise Nevelson signify the triumph of the abstract expressionist movement, which would establish New York City as the new center of the art world. Postmodern pieces by well known “wrap artist” Christo and the brilliantly satirical Red Grooms complete this breathtaking journey through American art history. Rounding out the experience are works by three of the greatest American illustrators, N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell.

Many of the artists included in Strokes of Genius, such as Arthur Bowen Davies, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Childe Hassam, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, Willard Metcalf, and Henry Ossawa Tanner, are also represented at the Telfair, offering visitors the opportunity to broaden their understanding of artists in the museum’s permanent collection. Strokes of Genius is organized by the New Britain Museum of American Art and sponsored in part by the City of Savannah Leisure Services Bureau/ Department of Cultural Affairs.

This information was taken from the Telfair Museum of Art website.