Fine Arts Museum News

Two exhibitions featuring Japanese woodblock prints are now on display at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts. Prints for the People: Japanese Ukiyo-e and Currier & Ives features Japanese and American prints from the 19th century, while Skin Deep: Tattooed Warriors and Fantastic Beasts includes images that have inspired tattoo artists for over 150 years. All of the images in the new exhibits are from the D’Amour Museum’s acclaimed print collections, and both feature works that in some cases have not been on display in recent years.

A new exhibition at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts will transport museum-goers back to a pivotal moment in American cultural history. The Beatles! Backstage and Behind the Scenes will be on view from March 12-June 2, 2013, and is sponsored by FieldEddy Insurance and Raymond James and Associates. The media sponsors are The Republican and WDRC 102.9 FM.

Over the last ten years, the staff of the Springfield Museums has carried out a thorough review of its permanent collections held at the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts and the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum. One of the outcomes of this review has been the award of a planning grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study the gallery installations at the GWV Smith Art Museum with the goal of making the collection more relevant and meaningful to the community we serve.

On November 18th at 2 pm, docent Betty Romer will discuss “Faces of the American Elite” during a mini-tour of the Michele & Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts.

Modern Dialect: American Paintings from the John and Susan Horseman Collection will be on view in the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from November 20, 2012-February 24, 2013. The exhibition illustrates American Modernism from the 1920s to the beginning of World War II, a period marked by significant change and compounded by the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s. The more than sixty major American Scene paintings in the exhibition illustrate the changes the nation underwent through the eyes of American artists who were often poor and out of work.

The exhibition Sisterhood: Mixed Media Paintings by Rosa Ibarra will be on view at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from September 15 through October 14.

Just in time for the Fourth of July and in anticipation of the November presidential election, the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts is presenting an exhibition that pays tribute to the American Presidency. Hail to the Chief: Power, Politics and Presidents Portrayed by Currier & Ives will be on view from June 26, 2012 through January 20, 2013.

Lisa Hoke creates colorful art out of things that we all encounter every day: paper, cardboard, product packaging, paper plates, plastic cups, matchbook covers, printed advertising material, and all sorts of other discarded flotsam and jetsam from our consumer society. She has assembled an intriguing and vibrant collection of these materials in the installation Love, American Style, on view at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts through May 26 of next year.

An exhibition of prints by some of the finest printmakers in the region is on view at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts through October 25 in the special exhibition Conscious Impressions: Green Printmaking from Zea Mays Printmaking Studio.

Hand-colored Currier & Ives lithographs that illustrate the changing role of women in the 19th century are on view through June 25 at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in the exhibition The Real Housewives of Currier & Ives.

Art work by 14 professional artists from the area who teach at the Museum School will be on view from January 17 to April 8 at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in the special exhibition Teaching Artists.

Ooo la la! There is a spectacular new exhibition of French painting at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts and to give the event some true Gallic flavor, the Museums are offering free admission to anyone with a current French passport.

Old Masters to Monet: Three Centuries of French Painting from the Wadsworth Atheneum will premier at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield from December 13, 2011, through April 29, 2012.

Scenes of the “City Of Light” will be on view at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from November 1, 2011, through April 29, 2012, in the exhibition Je Ne Sais Quoi: Views of Paris.

A series of 23 abstract watercolor paintings by Connecticut artist
C. Ronald Bechtle (born 1924) will be on view at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from October 25, 2011, through October 28, 2012 in the exhibition Poems II, 1969-1972: Watercolors by C. Ronald Bechtle.

The work of a local artist will be on view from October 18, 2011 through January 8, 2012 at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in the special exhibition “Beyond this Window: Paintings by Briana Taylor.”

Li Zou, an award-winning artist who specializes in the “meticulous style” of traditional Chinese painting, will present an exhibition and lecture/demonstration at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts.

Photographer Jessie Carleton creates and photographs still life compositions inspired by traditional Dutch vanitas (vanity) paintings that were designed as reminders of the transient nature of life and the certainty of death. The photos are now on view at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts through October 9 in the special exhibition Tabletops: Photographs by Jessie Carleton.

Currier & Ives images of the American West will be on view at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from June 28, 2011-January 29, 2012 in the special exhibition Imagining the Frontier: Landscape and Hunting Scenes of the American West.

Project 35, an exhibition of contemporary video, will be on view at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from June 7, 2011 through June 24, 2012.

The most beautiful natural scenery in the United States is presented in the exhibition American Legacy: Our National Parks, on Location with the Plein-Air Painters of America, on view from May 24 through November 6 at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts.

Paintings that evoke the work of the “old master” artists of the Renaissance will be on view from April 19 through July 10 at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in the special exhibition In the Footsteps of the Masters: Painting by Christina Mastrangelo.

An exhibition of prints by American and European artists associated with the Bauhaus School in Germany is on view at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts through October 30.

Often found on calendars, cookie tins and Christmas cards, Currier & Ives images strike a nostalgic chord in many people. A selection of the firm’s hand-colored lithographs will be on view at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from February 1 through May 1 in the special exhibition The Legacy of Currier & Ives: Shaping the American Spirit.

Images of majestic clipper ships, powerful steamboats and great maritime races will be on view from January 25 through June 26 at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in the exhibition Currier & Ives and the Majesty of the Sea: Clipper Ships and Steamboats.

Contemporary art quilts by B.Z. Reily will be on view at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from January 18 through April 10 in the special exhibition
Re-collections: Found Object Quilts.

Contemporary art quilts by 35 textile artists from around the world are on view at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from November 2, 2010, through January 16, 2011, in the exhibition SAQA @ 20: Art and Excellence.

Watercolors and drawings by two 19th-century land- and seascape artists will be on view at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from October 24, 2010, through October 23, 2011, in the exhibition Of Land and Sea: Alfred Thompson Bricher and William Trost Richards.

Dramatic x-ray images of flowers are on view at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts through January 9 in the special exhibition Radiographic Photography by Merrill Raikes: The Inner Beauty of Flowers. A free reception with the artist will be held on November 11, from 5 to 7 pm at the museum.

Prints by American artists who worked during the Great Depression are on view through March 27, 2011, at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in the exhibition WPA Artists in Print.

A selection of art in the style of contemporary realism will be on view from September 21 through October 24 at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in the Academic Artists 60th Anniversary Exhibition.

Saturn, a found-object sculpture by Chesterfield artist James Kitchen, will be on view on the grounds of the Springfield Museums from September 1, 2010 through May 1, 2011.

The firm of Currier & Ives is known for its idealized images of life in 19th-century America. As with other subjects, Currier & Ives presented an optimistic, romanticized vision of childhood. A selection of these prints is displayed in the exhibition Season of Joy: Celebrating Childhood in Currier & Ives Prints, on view now through January 23, 2011, in the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts.

New York artist Nathan Sawaya will create a sculpture out of LEGO building bricks at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts on Saturday, July 31, from 11 am-3 pm The Art of the Brick, an exhibition of Sawaya’s LEGO sculptures, is on view at the museum through September 5.

If you build it, they will come. And New York artist Nathan Sawaya has built some amazing sculptures out of common LEGO® building bricks. The Art of the Brick, an exhibition of Sawaya’s work, will be on view from June 16 through September 5 at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts at the Quadrangle.

The Mechanics of Introspection, an exhibition of paintings by East Longmeadow artist Kris Ludwig, is on view in the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts through July 11, 2010.

The Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts will present A Spring Celebration of Watercolor on Sunday, March 21, at 3 p.m. The program will feature a discussion of the art form by Heather Haskell, director of the museum; Julia Courtney, curator of art; and Deborah Rubin, a watercolor artist from Amherst.

The Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts will host the American Watercolor Society 142nd Annual International Exhibition from March 16 through May 23.

Hadley artist Lewis Bryden has donated two landscape paintings to the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts.

Paintings by Connecticut artist Daryl Zang will be on exhibit in the Community Gallery at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from January 19 through April 4, 2010. There will be a reception with the artist on April 1 from 5-7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Some of the finest watercolors at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts are now on view through Oct. 24, 2010, in the exhibition Watercolor Highlights from the Permanent Collection.

"Artful Lives: A Living Portrait of Georgia O'Keeffe" will be presented by Boston actress Robin Lane at the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 2 p.m. The program is free with the price of admission to the museum.

An exhibition of photographic images called "photograms" by Wilbraham artist Paul Bloomfield will be on view at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from Oct. 27, 2009, through Jan. 10, 2010. A free reception with the artist will be held on November 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the museum.

Wood engravings by the celebrated, self-taught artist Asa Cheffetz are on view in the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts through March 28, 2010 in the exhibition Asa Cheffetz: Master Wood Engraver.

Digital collage paintings by artist and teacher Robert Masla will be on view at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from July 21 through October 18.

Currier & Ives are known for their idealized images of rural life in America. In keeping with this theme, the firm created many “parlor” prints of young children interacting with household pets and barnyard companions. A selection of these prints will be displayed in the exhibition Feathers and Fur: Animal Companions in Currier & Ives Prints, on view from June 30, 2009, through Jan. 24, 2010, in the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts.

The Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts will celebrate its 75th anniversary with a multi-gallery exhibition that highlights the history of the museum through the artwork it has acquired, exhibited, and loaned through the years. A Tradition of Excellence: The D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts Celebrates 75 Years will be on view from May 29, 2009, through February 21, 2010.

Photo collage by Connecticut photographer George Jacobi is on view in the Community Gallery at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts through July 12 in the exhibition Alternative Visual Energy.

Woodcuts by the American painter, sculptor and printmaker Elliot Offner will be on view from April 7 through September 27, 2009, at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in the exhibition Wild Life Captured.

The Michele & Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts will host the American Watercolor Society's 141st Annual International Exhibition from March 3 through May 3.

Although the firm of Currier & Ives is known primarily for its idealized images of rural life in America, the firm also published more than 350 lithographs featuring religious and moralistic themes. A selection of these will be on view at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from January 20 through June 7 in the exhibition Divinity: Religious Images by Currier & Ives.

Echoes: Portraits of the Female Spirit, an exhibition of mixed media paintings by Amherst, Mass., artist Oriole Farb Feshbach, will be featured from January 13-April 5 in the Community Gallery at the Michele & Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts.

A roundtable panel about African American visual art of the 1960s and 1970s will take place at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 1 p.m.

Seldom-displayed watercolors collected by George Walter Vincent Smith between 1884 and 1887 are on view until October 25, 2009, at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in the exhibition The Allure of Italy: Late 19th-century Italian Watercolors.

Richard Buswell: Traces - Montana's Frontier Revisited, an exhibition of more than 50 black and white photographs, will be on view at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts from November 25, 2008, through February 22, 2009.

Paintings by local artist Holly S. Murray will be on view in the Community Gallery at the Michele & Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts from October 14, 2008-January 4, 2009, in the special exhibition Endangered Species.

A selection of twenty 19th- and 20th-century color woodblock prints from the permanent collection of the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts will be on view from September 9, 2008, through March 8, 2009.

An exhibition of watercolor paintings by the late Springfield-born artist Robert Woolfe will be on view from July 22 through September 28 at the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts. A reception with members of Woolfe's family will be held on July 23 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the museum. The reception is free and open to the public.

The New Reality: The Frontier of Realism in the 21st Century, an exhibition that compares contemporary Realism painting with its historical predecessors, will be on view at the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts from July 15 through November 16.

The Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts at the Quadrangle will be closed for electrical upgrades from Tuesday, June 24 through Friday, June 27. The other three Springfield Museums and the Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden will be open regular hours.

Springfield high school art students will showcase their work at the Museum of Fine Arts in the special exhibition Creativity Captured: Student Art from the Springfield Public Schools, on view now through July 13, 2008. A free reception with the young artists will be held on Thursday, May 1, from 5-7 p.m. at the museum.

The Museum of Fine Arts will present "The Other Side of Currier & Ives," a two-part teacher workshop on Monday, April 7, from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and Monday, April 14 from 4 -6:30 p.m. Participants will learn how to teach American history using images from the museum's large collection of 19th-century Currier & Ives prints. The deadline to register for the workshop is March 14.

Stunning photographs of Antarctica will be on view at the Museum of Fine Arts from March 25 through June 1 in the Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey.

Woodblock prints inspired by animals both real and imagined will be on view at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts from March 4-September 7, 2008, in the exhibition Curious Creatures: Japanese Prints from the Permanent Collection.

The exhibit Abstract Paintings by Douglas Deihl is on view through April 13 in the Community Gallery at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts.

The Worship of Wealth: Stained Glass in the Homes of the Rich will be the topic of a talk by stained glass conservator Julie Sloan on Sunday, January 27, at 2 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts. The talk is free with the price of museum admission. Coffee and cookies will be served.

Prints showing important 19th-century events and social phenomena will be on view at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts from January 15 through June 8, 2008, in the special exhibition Extra! Extra! Currier & Ives and the Mass Media.

Glass artist Josh Simpson will speak about his work on Sunday, January 6, at 2 p.m. at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts. The talk is free with the price of museum admission.

A group of colorful watercolors will be on view in the Starr Gallery at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts from December 4, 2007 through October 26, 2008, in the special exhibition At Play: Leisure Time Portrayed in Watercolor.

Josh Simpson: A Visionary Journey in Glass, 1972-2007, a retrospective exhibition highlighting more than three decades of glassblowing by one of the most acclaimed artists in the field, will be on view from November 20, 2007 through February 3, 2008 at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts.

The Museum of Fine Arts will present a two-part teacher workshop on Saturday, Nov. 3 and 17 from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. Participants will learn how to teach American history using images from the museum's collection of more than 800 Currier & Ives prints.

Etchings of bridges ranging from spans across the Thames River to the covered bridges of Vermont will be featured in Cross That Bridge: Prints from the Permanent Collection, on view at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts through March 2, 2008.

Ruta Smilskalns, an artist from Wayland, Mass., creates intriguing work form the most common object in her sewing basket, colorful spools of thread. Her "Spool Paintings" will be on view in the Community Gallery at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts from September 18, 2007 through January 13, 2008.

Some of the finest examples of prints produced by the lithography firm of Currier & Ives will be on view at the Museum of Fine Arts from July 19, 2007 through January 6, 2008 in the special exhibition Currier & Ives' Greatest Hits.

Vintage household appliances covered with hundreds of colorful pieces of broken tempered glass will be on view from July 3 through October 14 at the Museum of Fine Arts in the exhibition Domestic Reflections: Smashed Glass Assemblage by Mo Ringey.

A panoramic overview of 20th-century art is on display at the Museum of Fine Arts through October 21 in the special exhibition Seldom Seen: Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection.

Black and white photos by a camera artist from Leverett, Mass., are on view at the Museum of Fine Arts from May 8 through September 9 in the exhibition Explorations: Photographs by Robert Hallock. There will be a free reception with the photographer on Wednesday, June 6, from 5-7 p.m. at the museum.

The Museum of Fine Arts' Davis Auditorium will be the site of two documentary films presented in cooperation with two local organizations.

Prints by female artists are on view at the Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield through June 24, 2007, in the special exhibition Women in Print: Extraordinary Examples from the 20th Century.

The Museum of Fine Arts' Currier & Ives 2007 lecture series will conclude on February 25, at 2 p.m., with "Currier & Ives and the Emergence of American Mass Media," presented by Daniel Czitrom, professor of history at Mount Holyoke College.

The Museum of Fine Arts' Currier & Ives lecture series will continue on February 18, at 2 p.m., with "Currier & Ives' Greatest Hits," presented by Robert K. Newman, proprietor of The Old Print Shop in New York City. The talk is free with museum admission.

Patriotic images of American history and heroes are on view at the Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield through July 8, 2007, in the special exhibition Liberty & Justice: American Ideals Portrayed by Currier & Ives.

Quilt National '05, the fourteenth in a series of international juried competitions of art quilts, will be on view from February 13 through April 22, 2007, at the Museum of Fine Arts at the Quadrangle.

The Museum of Fine Arts has scheduled Perspectives on America, a three-part Sunday afternoon lecture series which will explore what Currier & Ives prints reveal about American history and the role they played as the precursor to the journalistic phenomena we now refer to as the "mass media."

Dancing Partners: Moving Color Reliefs, an exhibit of mixed-media work by Henry Klein of Adams, Mass., will be on view from Jan. 30 through April 29, 2007, in the Community Gallery at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts.

The Museum of Fine Arts will present the panel discussion Currier & Ives: Visions of America on Sunday, January 7, at 2 p.m. in the museum's Davis Auditorium. The program is free with the price of museum admission.

The Springfield Museums have developed a comprehensive, searchable online database of one of the largest public collections of Currier & Ives prints in the world. The database has been funded with a generous grant from the Frank Stanley Beveridge Foundation.

Dramatic black and white photographs of the western landscape will be on view at the Museum of Fine Arts from October 24-December 17 in the exhibition Ansel Adams: The Man Who Captured the Earth's Beauty.

The Museum of Fine Arts will host a performance of With Dream Awakened Eyes, an original play about the life and work of a female Jewish artist in Nazi Germany, on Sunday, Oct. 22, at 2 p.m. The program is free with the price of museum admission.

"Ancients Unwrapped" Lecture Series Explores Unusual Aspects of Greek and Roman Culture

Nature photography by camera artist John Green of Belchertown, Mass., will be on view from Sept. 26, 2006 through Jan. 7, 2007 in the Community Gallery at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts. The public is invited to a free reception with the artist on Oct. 19 from 5 to 7 p.m. Community Gallery exhibitions are sponsored by The Republican.

One of the most important events in American history is commemorated in the exhibition A Nation Divided: The American Civil War Depicted by Currier & Ives, on view from June 30 through December 31, 2006, at the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Springfield Museums at the Quadrangle will present the following Museums à la Carte programs in June. Museums à la Carte programs are held on Thursdays at 12:15 p.m. in the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Springfield Museums have announced that the popular exhibition Currier & Ives: An American Panorama, on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, has been extended until September 10, 2006. (Original closing date was June 4.)

The work of a Southwick artist will be on display in the Community Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts from May 23 through September 17 in the exhibition New England Vistas: Paintings by Carolyn Avery.

The Springfield Museums at the Quadrangle will present the following Museums à la Carte programs in May. Museums à la Carte programs are held on Thursdays at 12:15 p.m. in the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Springfield Museums at the Quadrangle will present the following Museums à la Carte programs in April. Museums à la Carte programs are held on Thursdays at 12:15 p.m. in the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Currier & Ives lecture series at the Museum of Fine Arts will continue on
April 2 at 2 p.m. with Currier & Ives: Constructing What It Meant to Be American. The talk will be presented by Barry O'Connell, professor of English at Amherst College.

The Currier & Ives lecture series at the Museum of Fine Arts will continue on
March 19 at 2 p.m. with Emancipation Day: Postbellum Visions of African Americans in Currier & Ives' Darktown Prints. The talk will be presented by James Smethurst, associate professor in the W.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

The Springfield Museums at the Quadrangle will present the following Museums à la Carte programs in March. Museums à la Carte programs are held on Thursdays at 12:15 p.m. in the Museum of Fine Arts.

Dr. Adolfo Roitman, curator of the Shrine of the Book, which houses the Dead Sea Scroll collection at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, will present "From Serpent to Satan: The Story of Paradise in Literature and Art" at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts on February 2 at 7:30 p.m. The lecture is free to the public and will be followed by a reception with Dr. Roitman.

The Museum of Fine Arts has scheduled Currier & Ives: Defining America, a four-part Sunday afternoon lecture series which will explore the social and artistic impact of the 19th-century printmakers Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives.

One of the largest public collections of Currier & Ives prints in the country will be unveiled for the first time in the special exhibition "Currier & Ives: An American Panorama."

The Springfield Museum of Fine Arts is currently showing prints by famous modern artists.

The Springfield Museums at the Quadrangle will present the following Museums à la Carte programs in October.

Photographs by Leonard Seeve will be on view in the Community Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts.