By Connie Hurley
In an attempt to fulfill its mission to bring great art and people together, the Speed Art Museum completed a $12 million renovation and expansion in 1997. Since then, the Museum has brought many eaxhibitions of photography, design, painting and sculptures to this region.
The Museum has a variety of upcoming exhibits, including “Jan de Bray and the Classical Tradition,” “William Ranney: An American Artist” and “Sam Gilliam: Retrospective.”
“Berthe Morisot: An Impressionist and Her Circle,” which is currently on display, features paintings, watercolors and drawings from Paris by female impressionist painter Berthe Morisot. The exhibit also includes paintings by Degas, Manet, Renoir and Monet, which come from Morisot’s own personal collection.
Morisot was the most successful and well-known female impressionist painter of the 19th century. Her paintings exhibit intimate domestic interiors, portraits, garden scenes, landscapes and coastal scenes.
“An Impressionist and Her Circle” is on display until Sept. 18.
“Jan de Bray and the Classical Tradition,” a small exhibit with three paintings by Jan de Bray and one by Peter Paul Rubens, will be on display Sept. 6 – Dec. 4. De Bray was one of the leading portrait and history painters of the Dutch Golden Age.
“Mary Ann Currier: A Retrospective Contemplating the Contemporary Still-Life” will include examples of Currier’s early abstract and figurative works, along with drawings and photographs.
The exhibit centers on Currier’s magnificent and meditative still lifes, which made a remarkable contribution to contemporary American realism according to the Speed Art Museum’s Web site.
This retrospective features 35 paintings from the early 1970s to the present. Patrons may view this gallery Oct. 4 through Dec. 18.
In the spring semester, an exhibit with 17th century paintings, prints and drawings that explore the Dutch fascination with the transformative effects of time or circumstance will open.
“Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art” will portray local landscapes with medieval structures left in ruins from the Spanish wars, rustic cottages and farmhouses in various states of disrepair,
Dutch Italianate landscapes with Roman ruins and accidental ruins caused by natural disasters. These works were created by Dutch masters such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Ludolf Bachhuysen, Rembrandt, Aelbert Cuyp and many more. The exhibit will open Jan. 10.
Next summer, former U of L art student and celebrated African-American artist Sam Gilliam will display his works. With his use of saturated color and spontaneous technique, Gilliam is regarded as one of the most important and inventive colorists of the last 30 years.
“Sam Gilliam: Retrospective” will be on display June 6 – Sept. 3, 2006.
To visit the exhibits:
2035 S. Third St., near Ekstrom Library
Hours of Operation:
Tues., Wed. & Fri.: 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
Thursday: 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m.
Saturday: 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m
Sunday: 12-5 p.m.
Monday: Closed
