American and European Art Reframed

AMERICAN + EUROPEAN ART RE FRAMED

Beginning August 21, 2021, a new installation in the Art of the Americas and Europe galleries at Phoenix Art Museum will have visitors rethinking some of their favorite works from the collection.

Co-curated by assistant curator Rachel Sadvary Zebro and Tim Rodgers, PhD, the Museum’s former Sybil Harrington Director and CEO, the reinstalled galleries on the Museum’s second-floor North Wing will create new conversations between works from the European art, art of the Americas, contemporary art, and fashion-design collections, including those by Claude Monet, Kehinde Wiley, Julius LeBlanc Stewart, and Dame Barbara Hepworth. Made possible through the generosity of Focus on European Art, an independent art appreciation and support group that raises funds for local art-education programs and exhibitions with a special emphasis on European art, the reinstallation is the next installment in the Museum’s Reframed project. The ongoing initiative was launched in 2016 to bring diverse perspectives and knowledge from artists and scholars from across Arizona into the Museum,

and the first Reframed installation, made possible through the generosity of the Henry Luce Foundation, showcased interpretative labels by Indigenous writers and curators in the American art galleries, which continue to be on view. Similarly, the newly refreshed Art of the Americas and Europe galleries will feature commissioned wall texts by curators, writers, subject-matter experts, and members from the community of diverse backgrounds, each of whom bring a unique voice and perspective to a specific collection work. Organized in eight distinct sections, the galleries will explore a wide range of topics, including religious iconography and ecstasy in the Christian faith. Viewers will also examine Impressionist works placed in conversation with 18th- and 19th-century views of Parisian life. Additionally, one section will illuminate the tradition of presenting women in repose by exploring issues surrounding the views of female identity in the 19th century through works like Antonio Rizzi’s Study in White, while another will offer a closer look at the legacy of two women artists: Adélaïde Labille-Guiard and Elisabeth Louise VigéeLeBrun. Through these new groupings of works, visitors are sure to discover something unexpected as they explore the deeper contexts of works long beloved in the Museum’s galleries. For a sneak peek of what’s in store, delve into an analysis that explores a work by Gustave Courbet featured in the installation and pictured here.

The reinstallation of the Art of the Americas and Europe galleries at Phoenix Art Museum is made possible through the generosity of Focus on European Art, with additional support from the Museum’s Circles of Support and Museum Members. image credits: (left) Gustave Courbet, The Wave, 1870. Oil on canvas. Museum purchase with funds provided by the Louis Cates Memorial Fund. (below) Adelaide Labille-Guiard, Madame Adelaide, c. 1787. Oil on canvas. Museum purchase with funds provided by an anonymous New York foundation.

THE WAVE BY GUSTAVE COURBET

Presented in the newly reinstalled Art of the Americas and Europe galleries at Phoenix Art Museum, The Wave (1870) by the Realist artist Gustave Courbet (1819–77) encourages visitors to take a closer look and consider how the artist revolutionized painting in 19th-century France. In the last two decades of his life, Courbet produced over and over images of the sky and sea. He created multiple paintings of the same subject, which allowed him to focus on painterly issues such as color, brushstroke, texture, light, and atmosphere. This approach varied greatly from the preferred techniques of the time. In the 19th century, artists created paintings first by drawing figures and forms in highly constructed illusions of threedimensional space. Drawing established the architecture, or the rationality, for the painting and was considered the most important element of a successful work. Paint color, allegedly, appealed to the senses and emotions, not the mind, and was thereby considered secondary. Although difficult for a modern audience to recognize, Courbet’s depictions of the sea illuminate the artist’s radical and extreme terms for his art. The oil painting lacks the typical, drawn details, like boats, people, and animals, that were characteristic in art of that time. As a matter of fact, no precise drawing is apparent in the work because the subject matter itself—the sky and the sea—are inherently shifting and formless. Instead, Courbet has emphasized bold color, obvious brushstrokes, and rough texture, insisting that these components carry the weight of the painting. Subsequent Impressionist artists admired and emulated Courbet’s art by elevating in their work the importance of color, light, atmosphere, water, brushstroke, and texture, and the next generation of artists advanced Courbet’s idea of repeating the same subject in a series of paintings, as exemplified by Monet’s multiple oils of cathedrals, bridges, haystacks, and waterlilies. Courbet’s radical departure from the norms of painting paralleled his rejection of institutions, governments, and societal restrictions. Ultimately, his anarchist tendencies created a difficult life fraught with conflict and trouble and marked by imprisonment and an early death. His paintings, however, as the embodiment of his beliefs, inspired the creation of modern art, and his independent thinking will resonate with contemporary audiences. — Tim Rodgers, PhD, the former Sybil Harrington Director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum