Clay Center
Charleston, WV
Art, Nature and the American City, 1840-1955:
Selections from the Spanierman Gallery
July 10 – October 10, 2010
Reception: Friday, July 16 at 6 pm
Lecture: Tuesday, October 5 at 6 pm in the Art Gallery
Overview of the exhibition by Dr. Lisa N. Peters, Director of Research and Publications, Spanierman Gallery, LLC, NY
Sponsored by: West Virginia Humanities Council
Art, Nature and the American City features ninety paintings and drawings by more than 50 artists. The exhibition represents major American art movements in a 115-year period, from the Hudson River School’s romantic landscapes and the American Impressionists’ sun-drenched scences to the Precisionists’ abstract cityscapes and the Ashcan School’s gritty urban scenes.
Among the artists are: Henry Boese, Alfred Thompson Bricher, Theodore Earl Butler, William Glackens, Philip Leslie Hale, Ernest Lawson, Hayley Lever, Edith Mitchill Prellwitz, John Henry Twachtman and Alexander Helwig Wyant. Several American artists that are not easily classified, such as Gershon Benjamin and James Henry Daugherty, are also represented. Benjamin’s etheral abstractions of urban and rural scenes are reminiscent of Milton Avery’s work, while Daughtery applied Synchromist theories to landscapes as well as non-objective paintings.
Urban and Rural Landscapes
from the Permanent Collection
July 28 – November 14, 2010
Organized by the Clay Center
The Clay Center’s permanent collection includes over 200 landscapes and cityscapes dating from 1835 to 2006. This exhibition includes visitors’ favorites – such as Consumer Coal Company by Stuart Davis, Winter on the River by Ernest Lawson and Triptych West Virginia by Barry Vance – as well as works that have rarely been exhibited. Among the paintings are: Via Appia by John Linton Chapman, Hiding Places by Darren Vigil Gray, Vue d’Alger by Pierre Albert Marquet and Halcyon Days by Gayle Surface.
Geometric, Staccato and Lyrical:
The Sculpture of Albert Paley
October 30, 2010 – January 23, 2011
Organized by the Clay Center
Saturday, October 30, 2 pm, Albert Paley
Saturday, December 11, 2 pm – Interpreting “Hallelujah” Through Its Makers with panelists Jud Ham, Ham Engineering; Michele Hobin, Maple Grove Enterprises; Jeff Jubenville, Paley Studios; and John Strickland, MCS Construction
Saturday, January 15, 2 pm, “Hallelujah” – A Dialog with the Art Community with panelists Paula Clendenin, Jonathan Cox, Chris Dutch and Robin Hammer
In October 2009 the Clay Center dedicated a 64 foot tall, 198,000 pound Albert Paley sculpture entitled Hallelujah. In a two-year period the project went from sketches and a cardboard maquette, to engineering drawings and the final monumental corten steel, bronze and stainless steel sculpture. Inspired by the process of this commission and questions from the community, Clay Center staff decided to organize a Paley exhibition. This exhibition explores the design and fabricating process of Paley’s most compelling site specific works. Curated by the Clay Center’s curator of art, Barbara Racker, in collaboration with Paley Studios, the exhibition includes drawings, photographs, prints and sculptural maquettes.
NASA / ART: 50 Years of Exploration
February 12 – May 6, 2011
Lectures:
Tuesday, March 15, 6 pm – Overview of the NASA Collection by curator Bertram Ulrich
Tuesday April 19, 6 pm – Is There Art on Other Planets? by Dr. David Grinspoon, Curator of Astrobiology, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
NASA’s historic triumphs and pioneering legacy are well known to millions, but the inspiring rocket launches, moon landings and planetary explorations also have had an impact on the imaginations of America’s leading artists. NASA / ART: 50 Years of Exploration, a traveling exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution, features 74 works created by some of America’s leading artists. The exhibition contains almost a half-century of creations by artists as diverse as Kahn and Selesnick, Annie Leibovitz, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik and William Wegman. Curated from the collections of NASA and the National Air and Space Museum, the exhibit includes drawings, photographs, sculpture and other media. These works—ranging from the illustrative to the abstract—offer unparalleled insight into the private and personal moments, triumphant victories and tragic accidents that form the storied history of NASA.
Art or Science? from the Permanent Collection
January 5 – April 3, 2011
Curated from the Clay Center’s permanent collection, works in this exhibition reference many scientific fields; the exhibition themes are: Op Art, Cubism and the Theory of Relativity, and Physics and Metaphysics. Richard Anuszkiewicz, Stuart Davis, Nancy Graves, Blanche Lazzell, George Rickey and Victor Vasarely are among the most notable artists.
New Acquisitions
January 5 – April 3, 2011
This special gift from the estate of Mary Price Ratrie consists of twelve paintings by 19th and early 20th century American artists and one 19th century French painter, Jean Baptiste Camille Corot. Among the works are watercolors by Alexander Wyant and John Singer Sargent, still lifes by American Impressionists Joseph Rodefer DeCamp and William McGregor Paxton, and Ruby-throated Hummingbird by Martin Johnson Heade. The collection also includes an early floral still life by Grant Wood.
