Crystal Bridges’ Loans Offer Public Access to Artworks Years Before Museum Opening
February 14, 2008 – 4:11 pm
Collaborations Reveal Glimpses of the Permanent Collection
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Feb. 13, 2008 – More than two years before opening, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is already realizing one of its primary goals of providing public access to great works of art. During 2007, the museum loaned 13 pieces from the permanent collection to other art institutions throughout the United States and to exhibitions traveling internationally.
“It is exciting for us to connect with our colleagues at other institutions,” said Bob Workman, Crystal Bridges executive director, “and to begin a dialogue of sharing, collaboration and loaning pieces from our collection to complement their holdings and special exhibitions.”
With each loan, another part of the Crystal Bridges permanent collection is revealed, offering a broader view of the world-class collection being assembled for the museum’s opening in 2010. “This is a dynamic, constantly evolving collection that will speak to the visitor on many levels,” Workman said. “It will be of the highest quality and will represent the richness of American culture through our country’s history.”
Crystal Bridges Works on View
Works from the permanent collection can be seen in museums across the country. During 2007, 13 pieces from the permanent collection were on public view in seven states as well as in three countries as part of special exhibitions or as loans complementing the borrowing institution’s collection. As of this press release, the museum’s works on view include:
- Hudson River School masterwork Kindred Spirits by Asher B. Durand, on loan to The San Diego Museum of Art, as part of the exhibition Kindred Spirits: Asher B. Durand and The American Landscape organized by the Brooklyn Museum (through April 27, 2008);
- Gilbert Stuart’s George Washington (The Constable-Hamilton Portrait), currently on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (since August 2006);
- Portrait of Professor Benjamin Howard Rand by Thomas Eakins, currently on loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (since June 2007);
- The most extensive surviving group of Colonial American portraiture, the Levy-Franks family paintings, currently on loan to The Jewish Museum in New York City; paintings now on view include:
- Portrait of Abigaill Levy Franks (through Sept. 30, 2008);
- Portrait of Jacob Franks (through Sept. 30, 2008);
- The Backwoods of America by Jasper Cropsey, on loan to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City (since June 2007);
- Charles Willson Peale’s Portrait of George Washington, on loan to the Guggenheim Museum as part of the exhibition, Art in the USA: Three Hundred Years of Innovation at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain, (through April 27, 2008);
- George Wesley Bellows’ Excavation at Night, currently on loan to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia;
- Dennis Miller Bunker’s Portrait of Anne Page, on loan to the Seattle Art Museum;
- Rose Garden by Maria Oakey Dewing, currently on loan to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.;
- Ottoe Half Chief, Husband of Eagle of Delight, by Charles Bird King, on loan to the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth;
- Wai-Kee-Chai, Sanky Chief, Crouching Eagle, by Charles Bird King, also on loan to the Amon Carter Museum in Forth Worth;
- Samuel F. B. Morse’s Marquis de Lafayette, on loan to the New-York Historical Society as part of the exhibition French Founding Father: Lafayette’s Return to Washington’s America, (through Aug. 10, 2008).
Other works that have been publicly announced but are not currently on view include:
- Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait’s The Life of a Hunter: A Tight Fix;
- Hall of the Mountain King by Marsden Hartley;
- Martin Johnson Heade’s Cattleya Orchid, Two Hummingbirds and a Beetle;
- Winslow Homer’s Spring;
- Winter Scene, View Near Clarkstown, by John William Hill.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is envisioned as a premier national art institution dedicated to American art and artists, learning and community gatherings. Crystal Bridges will house a permanent collection of signature works from American artists along with galleries dedicated to regional art and artists. The main pavilions will house a permanent collection of American art masterworks from the Colonial period to the present. Located in Bentonville, Ark., Crystal Bridges takes its name from a natural spring on the museum’s wooded site as well as the unique glass-and-wood building design created by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie. The 100-acre site of the museum complex and cultural center, which is scheduled to open in 2010, is located within walking distance of the Bentonville town square. For more information about Crystal Bridges, visit www.crystalbridges.org.
