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Guests viewing artwork in a salon hang.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art will be closed Monday, May 13, to prepare for the visit of Antiques Roadshow. We will return to normal hours of operation Wednesday, May 15.

Posts for Art & Collection

What is Blackwell’s Island?
History image of Blackwell's Island

What is Blackwell’s Island?

Art & Collection

What is Blackwell’s Island? An oil painting by Edward Hopper? Yes, but where and what is the actual Blackwell’s Island? Why did Hopper choose to paint it? These are questions…

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Crystal Bridges Acquires Frank Lloyd Wright House
Frank Lloyd Wright Bachman-Wilson House exterior

Crystal Bridges Acquires Frank Lloyd Wright House

Architecture Art & Collection Nature & Outdoor

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has acquired a rare Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian house, known as the Bachman-Wilson House, located in the Borough of Millstone in Somerset County, N.J.…

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Duane Hanson’s “Man on a Bench” Perplexes the Masses
School kids look at sculpture of man sitting on a bench

Duane Hanson’s “Man on a Bench” Perplexes the Masses

Art & Collection
While seated in a gallery reflection area during her break, Museum Security Patrol Officer Janet overheard a somewhat panicked voice. “Sir,” the voice inquired. “Sir, are you okay?” Janet turned…
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Robert Henri’s Clean Slate
Robert Henri

Robert Henri’s Clean Slate

Art & Collection
Robert Henri, born Robert Henry Cozad, had a fairly ordinary childhood. His father, John Jackson Cozad, was a professional gambler turned real estate promoter; his mother, Theresa Gatewood Cozad, was…
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"Time" and the New Year
Detail of a older man's hand holding an analog wall clock

"Time" and the New Year

Art & Collection
Perhaps it’s a cliché to illustrate the dawning of a new year with a painting titled “Time.” But Max Ferguson’s gorgeously detailed work is so evocative, I just couldn’t resist.…
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“I Don’t Get It”— Getting comfortable with some of Crystal Bridges’ challenging artworks: Lynda Benglis's "Eat Meat"
Visitors look at a metal sculpture on the floor

“I Don’t Get It”— Getting comfortable with some of Crystal Bridges’ challenging artworks: Lynda Benglis's "Eat Meat"

Art & Collection

Of all the works in Crystal Bridges collection that cause guests to scratch their heads in bewilderment, Lynda Benglis’s Eat Meat has to be at the top of the list. …

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The Lady Gets a Makeover
William Wetmore Story,

The Lady Gets a Makeover

Art & Collection Nature & Outdoor
To me, one of the most fascinating careers in the art world is conservation: a profession devoted to the preservation of our tangible cultural heritage. Conservators have the very important…
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Restoring an Original
Conservator working on frame for artwork

Restoring an Original

Art & Collection Nature & Outdoor
Thomas Eakins’s Professor Benjamin Howard Rand is a centerpiece of Crystal Bridges' Late Nineteenth Century Art Gallery.  Its large, beautiful, and ornate frame is often noticed and remarked upon by…
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Frame-Up
Framed painting of group of women dressed as clowns hang gold-hued lanterns, which glow against the blue night sky

Frame-Up

Art & Collection
The frames on many of the works of art in Crystal Bridges' collection are of as much interest to visitors as the artworks themselves. Gallery Guides are frequently asked where…
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Discoveries in the Stieglitz Collection: Part II
Diego Rivera, Le sucrier et les bougies (Sugar Bowl and Candles)

Discoveries in the Stieglitz Collection: Part II

Art & Collection Exhibitions
Time-traveling sculpture Further research on one of the sculptures in the Alfred Stieglitz Collection revealed that the work’s recorded date of 1930 was incorrect: it turned out the artwork was…
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Preparing for "The Artists’ Eye" - 10 Interesting Things I have Learned
A pressed flower sent to O'Keeffe by Alfred Steiglitz.

Preparing for "The Artists’ Eye" - 10 Interesting Things I have Learned

Art & Collection Exhibitions

Just last weekend, on November 9th, the exhibition The Artists’ Eye: Georgia O’Keeffe and the Alfred Stieglitz Collection opened to the public. This marvelous exhibition features the Alfred Stieglitz Collection,…

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A Conversation with Celeste Roberge
Celeste Roberge, Chaise Gabion

A Conversation with Celeste Roberge

Art & Collection Nature & Outdoor
Celeste Roberge's steel and stone sculpture Chaise Gabion is sited on the Museum's East Terrace, up the steps from Walker Landing. From her early stone-filled gabion figures, to a body…
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Discoveries in the Stieglitz Collection: Part I
Marsden Hartley, Maine Landscape, Autumn No. 13

Discoveries in the Stieglitz Collection: Part I

Art & Collection Exhibitions

It is always a great moment when artworks for a major exhibition arrive at Crystal Bridges: unpacking the crates and viewing the artworks is a similar experience to unpacking Christmas…

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Deinstalling Exhibitions
Crates of artwork are lined up in the gallery

Deinstalling Exhibitions

Art & Collection Exhibitions
How many people does it take to deinstall an exhibition?  Sometimes a lot. For the take-down of the Angels & Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th-Century American Art exhibition it took ten…
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Photographing Works of Art
Man moves light around to take better photo of art object

Photographing Works of Art

Art & Collection
This is where the prep work begins, to ensure we have everything ready to go before Edward arrives. Step one, obviously enough, is to decide on the objects we need…
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Who Was Alfred Stieglitz? Part II
Fisk University Student Edythe Paulin and Georgia O'Keeffe

Who Was Alfred Stieglitz? Part II

Art & Collection Exhibitions

Continued from Part I  Modernism and the Modern Age Alfred Stieglitz and his partner, Edward Steichen, assembled exhibitions of photographs, paintings, drawings, illustrations, caricatures, prints, and sculptures. They showed African…

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Significant Careers of Determined Artists: Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly

Significant Careers of Determined Artists: Dale Chihuly

Art & Collection Museum Store

Most people are familiar with the characterization of the starving artist. They are the determined visionaries who forgo many of life’s comforts—money, food, bathing—so they can focus all of their…

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A Halloween Tale
John Singer Sargent, Robert Louis Stevenson and His Wife

A Halloween Tale

Art & Collection
October is a festive and mystical month.  Summer days shorten and the dark of night arrives earlier.  Brisk winds carry the sounds of falling leaves and the faint smell of…
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Who Was Alfred Stieglitz?
Gertrude Käsebier, Alfred Stieglitz

Who Was Alfred Stieglitz?

Art & Collection Exhibitions

On November 9, Crystal Bridges will open an exhibition of 101 works of art collected by Alfred Stieglitz in the early twentieth century. The collection includes photographs, paintings, drawings, prints,…

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Karl Bodmer’s Adventures During the 1833/34 Upper-Missouri Expedition, Part II
Map of the journey of Karl Bodmer and Prince Maximilian.

Karl Bodmer’s Adventures During the 1833/34 Upper-Missouri Expedition, Part II

Art & Collection Exhibitions
To read Part I, click here. On their return trip, Maximilian and company stayed at Fort Clark in present-day North Dakota from November 1833 to April 1834. As Maximilian recounts,…
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