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Indepth Arts News:
"Paris 1900: The American School at the Universal Exposition"
1999-09-19 until 2000-01-16
Mountclair Art Museum
Montclair, NJ,
USA United States of America
The Montclair Art Museum presents a major exhibition recreating the American art
installation from the Universal Exposition of 1900. The exposition marked the birth
of a distinctly American school of art on par with those of Europe. Paris 1900
features more than 80 masterpieces, primarily from the original installation,
including paintings by such masters as George Inness (who spent his later years in
Montclair), James McNeill Whistler, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, and
Thomas Eakins. The exhibition has been made possible through the generous support
of The Florence Gould Foundation, The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc., the National
Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, the Baird Family Fund and The Bank of
New York and the George Link Jr. Foundation. The exhibition's presentation in Paris
is made possible with generous support from Lucent Technologies, Inc.
Works of art exhibited in Paris have been lent by museums across the United States
and Europe, including Whistler's Symphony in White No. 2 from the Tate Gallery
in London, Inness's Sunny Autumn Day from the Cleveland Museum of Art,
Homer's Maine Coast from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Eakins's Cello
Player from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and four works from the
Musée d'Orsay, never before shown in America.
The exhibition also includes a wide variety of objects outside of the paintings
installation, including sculptures, decorative art objects and archival material to bring
the Universal Exposition of 1900 to life. Highlights include The Montclair Art
Museum's versions of Hermon Atkins MacNeil's Sun Vow and Bessie Potter
Vonnoh's Young Mother, Augustus Saint-Gaudens's Amor Caritas from the
Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, and Tiffany Studios' Cypriote Vase from the
Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The exhibition was curated by Diane P. Fischer, Associate Curator of The Montclair
Art Museum. Gail Stavitsky, Chief Curator of MAM serves as project director. A
fully-illustrated, scholarly catalogue, co-published with Rutgers University Press
accompanies the exhibition. It features five essays by noted scholars, including
Fischer; Stavitsky; Gabriel P. Weisberg, Professor of Art History at the University
of Minnesota; Linda J. Docherty, Associate Professor at Bowdoin College; and
Robert W. Rydell, Professor of History at the University of Montana. The catalogue
includes an annotated catalogue of the original paintings installation at the Universal
Exposition. Comprising 256 pages with 147 illustrations, it is available in
paperback ($30) and hardcover ($50) from the Museum Store.
Following its presentation at The Montclair Art Museum, Paris 1900 will tour to
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA (February 11-April 16,
2000), the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH (May 18-August 13, 2000)
and The Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, WI (September 16-December 2, 2000).
In early 2001, the exhibition will be presented at the Musé Carnavalet in Paris.
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