Displaying items by tag: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art recently acquired Maya’s Quilt of Life, 1989, (acrylic on canvas and painted, dyed and pieced fabrics) by Faith Ringgold, from the art collection of the late author and activist, Maya Angelou. The work hung in Angelou’s home and was commissioned by Oprah Winfrey for Angelou’s 61st birthday.

Ringgold is well-known for her painted story quilts, which unite a tradition of representational painting with the rich history of quilting in the African-American community. The border of Maya’s Quilt of Life is made from pieced-together fabric that frames Angelou, who is surrounded by flowers in her signature patterned African dress and head wrap.

Back in 2013, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, acquired Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House from architect/designer team Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino. The only catch was that the house was located 1,200 miles away in Millstone, New Jersey. Staff at Crystal Bridges quickly got to work devising a plan to disassemble, transport, and rebuild the house -- a stunning example of one of Wright’s iconic Usonian homes -- on the museum’s sprawling 120-acre campus. As the project nears completion, the museum has announced that it will officially unveil the structure to the public on November 11, 2015, the fourth anniversary of Crystal Bridges’ opening.

Wright designed the Bachman-Wilson House in 1954 for Abraham Wilson and his wife, Gloria Bachman, whose brother, Marvin Bachman, was an...

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art announced today that its Frank Lloyd Wright house, which the Bentonville, Arkansas museum transplanted from New Jersey in 2014, will open to the public on November 11. Since its acquisition by the museum, the home, known as the Bachman-Wilson House, has been disassembled, traveled 1,200 miles, and been reconstructed in the museum’s garden.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has acquired two sculptures and two paintings by artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010): "Maman," 1999 (bronze, stainless steel, and marble), "Quarantania," 1947-1953 (bronze, painted white with blue and black, and stainless steel), "Connecticutiana," 1944-1945 (oil on wood), and "Untitled," 1947 (oil on canvas).

“Louise Bourgeois contributed significantly to shaping American narrative with work that spanned most of the twentieth century and helped inform the growing feminist art movement. We’re eager to share her acclaimed sculptures as well as her rare paintings which offer visitors a chance to explore her work in two and three-dimensions,” said Crystal Bridges Executive Director Rod Bigelow.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art on Friday announced a number of new art acquisitions, including Helen Frankenthaler's "Seven Types of Ambiguity" and Robert Rauschenberg's "The Tower," along with a reinstallation of its contemporary art gallery.

The acquisitions, which The New York Times valued at $20 million, join Georgia O'Keeffe's "Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1," which sold for a record-setting $44.4 million at Sotheby's in November, more than three times the previous record for a work by a woman artist. The Bentonville museum revealed that it had bought Jimson Weed in an announcement last week.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art announces the opening of "Van Gogh to Rothko: Masterworks from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery," on view February 21 through June 1, 2015. The exhibition brings together 76 artworks by 73 influential artists from the late 19th century to the present, including Vincent van Gogh, Joán Miró, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and Mark Rothko. The works were selected from the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, one of the finest collections of 20th century art in the country. General admission to the temporary exhibition is $10 and free to Members and youth under 18 years old.

“Crystal Bridges is one of only four venues to host the exhibition and we’re delighted to provide visitors a rare opportunity to share the gallery with some of the most prominent figures in art history. Albright-Knox is one of the oldest collecting institutions in the country—we’re grateful, as one of the youngest, to share these stunning works that helped shape the story of American art.” says Rod Bigelow, Crystal Bridges Executive Director.

Late last year the $15 million or £9.5 million estimate for Georgia O'Keeffe's work at auction was shattered after a rather intense bidding war between two unknown rivals. "Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1," a 1932 painting of a simple white flower, was finally bought after the flurry by an unnamed buyer with a telephone bid at Sotheby’s auction house.

The floral painting by the late US artist has sold for $44.4 million or £28.8 million at auction; this set a record for an artwork by a female artist. The auction of the work smashed the previous record of $11.9 million or £7.5 million for an untitled work by Joan Mitchell, which was set in set in May. The work was put up for sale by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in New Mexico, after the need arose to raise proceeds for its acquisitions fund.

The final installment of the “American Encounters” exhibition series co-organized by the musée du Louvre, the High Museum of Art, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art, the exhibition “The Simple Pleasures of Still Life” explores the rise of still-life painting in 19th-century America. In the wake of the exhibitions on landscape, genre painting, and portraiture, this exhibition provides a new opportunity to foster dialogue on American painting.

Featuring 10 artworks from the collections of the four partner institutions, this final exhibition follows on from the previous ones to illustrate how American painters like Raphaelle Peale, Martin Johnson Heade, and William Michael Harnett adapted European models to their time and country, and thus contributed to the creation of a national voice.

The High Museum of Art has announced the final installment in its series of “American Encounters” exhibition collaborations with the Louvre, Arkansas’ Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Chicago and Paris-based Terra Foundation for American Art.

“The Simple Pleasures of Still Life, ” the fourth exhibit in the four-year project, will run at the High from Sept. 26, 2015 to Jan. 31, 2016. The intimate show will focus on how late 18th- and early 19th-century American artists adapted European still-life tradition to the taste, character and experience of their younger country.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art announced today that Don Bacigalupi will be the organization's founding president. He'll be leaving his current job as president of Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, to join the Lucas Museum on January 15.

Bacigalupi was hired by Crystal Bridges as executive director in 2009, two years ahead of its opening, and became president in 2011. Before that, he was president of the Toledo Museum of Art. He oversaw major construction and start-up projects at both institutions. He has a PhD in art history from the University of Texas at Austin.