1 minute read
New Beginnings
New Beginnings: An American Story of Romantics and Modernists in the West is a bold and colorful exhibition featuring stunning works from the art colonies of Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico. Drawn from the private Tia Collection, Santa Fe, the Dayton Art Institute is the final destination and exclusive Midwestern venue for this major traveling exhibition.
The expansive display includes 155 works by 85 artists, including 21 women. New Beginnings highlights art from the 1840s to 1983, with most coming from the 1910s through the 1940s, considered the “Golden Age” of New Mexican art. Artists of note include George Bellows, E. Martin Hennings, Joseph Henry Sharp, Agnes Pelton, Ernest Blumenschein, John Marin, Stuart Davis and many others. In addition to paintings, New Beginnings also includes sculpture, prints and photography.
Advertisement
Artists traveled for the clean, dry air of New Mexico’s high desert in search of adventure, for their physical and mental health, and to escape crowded, polluted cities of Eastern states. The artists became part of New Mexico’s dynamic blend of Native American, Hispanic and Anglo cultures. Many of the artists, especially those settling in Taos, were trained at the finest art academies of America and Europe. Their highly finished, naturalistic paintings traveled the country in exhibitions, which piqued America’s curiosity about the Southwest. Other artists, especially in Santa Fe, were more inspired by the new artistic language of modernism. This exhibition brings these diverse styles together, placing the realistic side-by-side with the abstract in exciting fashion.
New Beginnings is on view through May 21.
Focus Exhibition
Gallery 105