Works by Artists of Cuban Ancestry from the Permanent Collection

August 18- November 25, 2008

Emily S. Macey Gallery

The Polk Museum of Art has amassed a fine collection of works by artists of Cuban ancestry, both those living still living in Cuba and those living in or born in the United States. Works by Luisa Basnuevo, Jose Bedia, Mario Bencomo, Humberto Calzada, Arturo Rodriguez, and the other artists in the exhibition demonstrate the variety of styles, themes and interests of Cuban and Cuban-American art produced in recent decades.

All Over the Place

August 11 – November 11, 2007

Perkins Gallery

This exhibition of works from the permanent collection will explore how artists use geographical places and settings in their work. Whether rural or urban, natural or manmade, each landscape can inspire different responses.

The exhibition includes works in a wide variety of mediums used to capture the artists’ sense of place. Included in this exhibition will be works inspired by Tibet by Robert Rauschenberg, Austria by Richard Estes, San Francisco by Rene Pauli, and the lushness of central Florida by Margaret Tolbert.

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi: Thirty-Two Aspects of Women

May 12 – September 2, 2007

Ledger and Murray Galleries

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) is considered to be the last and greatest genius of ukiyo-e. The Polk Museum of Art is fortunate to have the entire collection of one of his most revered series of prints, Thirty Two Aspects of Women. Yoshitoshi was born shortly before the Meiji era began in Japan, a time of modernization and increased contact with European nations and the United States. He addressed this western influence by attempting to prevent the loss of Japanese traditions. Much of his work served as reminders to the Japanese people of the importance of their historical and cultural heritage.

Demand for woodblock prints began to fade in 1880 as the old masters began to die and photography and lithography were replacing the traditional methods of creating images. In response, Yoshitoshi turned increasingly to traditional subjects that were recreated using the highest possible standard of production. Yet he admired much of the compositional structure of western art, particularly its ability to depict movement, and he abandoned the traditional vegetable dyes in favor of new and brighter aniline dyes.

His combination of traditional Japanese subject matter with western techniques led to Yoshitoshi’s most popular work. By 1884 he employed more than eighty apprentices, enabling him to try ambitious projects. In 1888 he completed Thirty Two Aspects of Women, revealing his renowned capacity for portraying the complexity of women rather than portraying them as mere objects for the male gaze. Unfortunately, shortly after completing Thirty Two Aspects of Women, Yoshitoshi became ill. In 1891 he was admitted to a mental hospital, but left in the spring of 1892. Yoshitoshi died in June 1892. With his death, the art of ukiyo-e all but ended.

Japanese Textiles from the Permanent Collection

June 2 – August 19, 2007

Dorothy Jenkins Gallery

For decades, the Museum has collected Asian art. However, it received a major addition in 2005 when Polk County collectors William D. and Norma Canelas Roth donated more than thirty Japanese textiles in honor of Margaret Wilbanks. This exhibition will mark the first opportunity for these impressive works to be viewed by the public.

Dating from the late 19th century through the mid 20th century, the kimono, vests, jackets and other textiles in this exhibition represent a time of transition and great artistic creativity in the development of Japanese fashion. Through World War II, the kimono was the standard garment worn by most Japanese people for all occasions. Once the war ended, Western dress became more popular with the kimono assuming a more formal or ceremonial role. The Roth collection includes garments for men, women and children as well as a number of important “folk” textiles, garments created by and for the rural people of Japan.

Fruits and Flowers: Dalí’s Botanical Prints

June 2 – August 12, 2007

Emily S. Macey Gallery

This exhibition includes 24 prints by Salvador Dalí from his FlorDalí series. These prints demonstrate Dalí’s skill at creating collaged imagery from previously printed material as well as his own work. This exhibition has been curated and toured by the Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL.

Throughout his career, Dalí (1904-1989) looked to old book illustrations for inspiration. In the four folios represented in this exhibition, visitors will see the transformation that occurs as he moves from working directly from original, scientific botanical illustrations to making additions to them and finally to combining images to create wholly new and utterly fantastic visual ideas.

Mamie Holst: Landscape Before Dying

May 26 – August 5, 2007

Perkins Gallery

Fort Myers artist Mamie Holst has exhibited her work throughout the country and in Europe. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from University of West Florida in Pensacola and her Master of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Visual Arts in New York. Among the awards and honors she has received was a 2005 Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. She is currently represented by Feature Inc., New York.

After earning her MFA degree, Holst settled outside of New York to pursue a career as an artist. However she soon began to encounter difficulties in working. In 1989 Holst was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), an illness characterized by incapacitating fatigue, problems with memory, difficulties in information processing, and a vast array of other symptoms. In Holst’s case, CFIDS severely limits the amount of time and energy she can devote to any activity, including painting. In 1992 her illness led her to move to Fort Myers to live with her family. Landscape Before Dying is a series Holst began a few years after her return to Florida, a series she continues to work on.

This exhibition of works from the series features 30 acrylic paintings on canvas from 1998-2005. Painted in white, black and shades of gray, these non-representational artworks represent the subconscious workings of Holst’s mind, in a sense mapping out her thoughts as she heads out into unknown territory. Though much of her work prior to the onset of CFIDS was sculptural in nature, often large-scale and often quite colorful, the illness led her back to small-scale paintings using nothing but black and white. The small size of these canvases is a result of her limited energy. The lack of color is a result of the increased difficulty in making decisions about details.

However much these limitations might have impacted the direction of her art, they have brought a greater intensity to those elements on which she remains focused. Beginning with a small black and white painting in 1997, which depicted a stark, uncertain landscape, Holst saw the potential for an exploration of how the most basic artistic forms could be used to depict life’s possibilities. Her series is not conceived as a series of answers; rather the paintings pose abstract questions. The paintings are not intended to be particularly morbid or even directly concerned with death as an end; instead, Holst believes that death is a part of life, “just a passing from one plane.” Her paintings address in very open ways the nature of relationships any of us might have with one another or the greater world around us during our lifetimes.

These are ambitious goals for paintings that make every attempt to avoid interaction with us, with their diminutive scale and lack of loud colors. But they connect to us through a shared sense of uncertainty about life, even if we have varying approaches to life or visions of what lies far ahead. Through her Landscape Before Dying series, Holst continues to use abstracted simplicity to find that the distance between now and far ahead can be filled with unimagined options.

Kickin’ It with Joyce J. Scott

April 7 – May 27, 2007

Dorothy Jenkins and Emily S. Macey Galleries

For over three decades, Joyce J. Scott has been creating objects of exceptional skill and beauty while offering her own distinctive commentary on social issues such as stereotyping, violence, and the prejudice that we all confront at some point in our lives. Now, a national retrospective of her 30-year career, Kickin’ It with Joyce J. Scott, opening April 7, 2007 at Polk Museum of Art, pays tribute to her remarkable career by presenting 60 of her works created since 1970. This comprehensive exhibition includes sculpture, jewelry, prints, and textiles as well as videos and photographs of Scott’s performance and installation work.

The foundation of Scott’s art is craft. Though she often mixes materials—ceramic, glass, cloth, and metal—beads are prevalent in her work: a glittering, beaded surface is a signature element of her oeuvre. If her subject matter is sometimes harsh, it is leavened by her wry humor and masterly technique. And her influences, from African and Native American experiences to comic books, television, and other venues of popular American culture, are as wide ranging as her media.

Joyce J. Scott was born in Baltimore and still lives in the neighborhood where she was raised. Scott received a B.F.A. degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a M.F.A. in crafts from Institute Allende in Mexico, with further study at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine.

Scott’s earliest art lessons were received at home from her mother, the renowned fiber artist, Elizabeth Talford Scott. She began to be influenced from an early age by three generations of basketmakers, quilters, storytellers, and wood, metal and clay workers. At the center of this generative heritage was the influence of Africa, where the creation of utilitarian objects of beauty is everyday practice. In keeping with traditional African practices, Scott often uses beads as medium.

Scott is renowned for her striking creations and biting social commentary on issues such as racism, violence, sexism and stereotypes. She writes, “I believe in messing with stereotypes, prodding the viewer to reassess.” According to Scott, “It’s important to me to use art in a manner that incites people to look and then carry something home – even if it’s subliminal – that might make a change in them…I am a visual and performance artist because it’s my best voice as a human. It allows interaction, sometimes masked, even scabrous, in ways polite society finds uncomfortable,” writes Scott. “My work is not meant to be openly offensive. I skirt the borders between comedy, pathos, delight, and horror. I invite the viewer to laugh at our collective selves. Humans are hilariously precocious.”

Joyce Scott exhibits, performs, and lectures nationally and internationally and is the recipient of prestigious honors from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Anonymous Was a Woman and the American Craft Council.

Kickin’ It with Joyce J. Scott is made possible by a generous grant from Altria Group, Inc. The exhibition is curated by George Ciscle, Curator-in-Residence, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, and organized and toured by ExhibitsUSA. ExhibitsUSA is a national division of Mid-America Arts Alliance, a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1972.

Scott will attend the opening reception of the exhibition on Friday, April 13 and will introduce her work with a lecture at 6:00pm. On Saturday, April 14,1-4:30pm, Scott will present a performance and two other prominent scholars will join us for Dialogues with Artists.

RELATED EVENTS:

Members’ Celebration Opening Reception
Friday, April 13, 2007 | 6:00 – 8:00pm
Lecture by Joyce J. Scott at 6:00pm
FREE for Members, $5 Guests

Join us on April 13 for the Members’ Celebration Opening Reception for Kickin’ It With Joyce J. Scott. The artist will attend and will give a lecture about her work at 6:00pm. The reception will follow. Cash Bar.

Dialogues With Artists: Joyce J. Scott
Saturday, April 14, 2007 | 1:00 – 4:30pm
$20 Members, $25 Non-Members, $10 Students with I.D.

Internationally acclaimed artist Joyce Scott will give a live performance in conjunction with the exhibition Kickin’ It with Joyce J. Scott on Saturday, April 14th. The performance is open to the public. Scott is well known for her performances and uses her art to speak out about racism, sexism, and other prejudices.

In addition to Scott’s performance there will be lectures by Dr. Leslie King-Hammond and author Mel Watkins. Dr. King-Hammond is dean of graduate studies at the Maryland Institute, College of Art and is considered one of the foremost authorities of African American aesthetics, women studies, and contemporary twentieth-century art history. Mel Watkins is the author of On the Real Side, A History of African-American Comedy from Slavery to Chris Rock and Dancing with Strangers, a recollection of growing up in Midwestern American in the 1950s and 1960s. He will talk about Joyce Scott’s role as a performer and humorist within the context of African American humor.

Dialogues with Artists (Formally Symposium) is a new program bringing multicultural artists to Polk County to participate in this year’s exhibitions and outreach programs. Dialogues attempts to enrich the community by exposing audiences to art through exhibitions, personal conversations with selected artists from the shows, and through workshops directed to both at-risk youth organizations and high school teachers. The dialogues program illustrates how art can be an effective personal storytelling tool for educating, a method for documenting, and finally, a way to engage one’s art with community.

The Dialogues with Artists program is made possible by a Challenge America grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Monica Naugle: Oppositional Essences

March 3 – May 20, 2007

Perkins Gallery

Plant City artist Monica Naugle utilizes harsh and often discarded metal and other materials to create unusually delicate sculptures. She weaves forms that are either directly recognizable (clothing or purse, for example) or sufficiently organic in appearance as to seem perfectly natural. Naugle is a native of Colombia who has lived in Florida since 1978. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Tampa Bay area in museums and through public commissions, but this is the Polk Museum of Art’s first opportunity to exhibit her work.

Laying it on Thick (or Thin): Paintings from the Permanent Collection

January 13 – April 22, 2007

Ledger and Murray Galleries

From the chunkiest acrylic paintings and the most elegant oil paintings to delicate watercolors and the glasslike quality of encaustics, this exhibition of paintings from the permanent collection will give visitors the opportunity to view all the wide range of textures and forms artists can achieve with paint.

Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius

February 3 – April 1, 2007

Dorothy Jenkins and Emily S. Macey Galleries

Opening with a February 2 reception and lecture by John Szarkowski, Museum of Modern Art’s Photography Director Emeritus, Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius is a blockbuster exhibition featuring 150 photographs by Ansel Adams. Celebration of Genius presents work from the 1920s through the 1960s, all part of the collection of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.

On a summer day in 1916, at the age of fourteen, Ansel Adams saw the breathtaking Yosemite Valley for the first time. With a Kodak No. 1 Box Brownie, he proceeded to make pictures. Perhaps he had an inkling that this magical place would be forever entwined with his destiny. Adams remains among the few photographers in history whose name and work enjoy world-wide recognition. His stunning landscapes and intimate still lifes of nature continue to captivate viewers. While many come to know his work through widely published books, postcards, posters and calendars, relatively few have actually seen his lushly printed original images.

This exhibition presents work from the 1920s through the 1960s, including an early 1927 portfolio (one of only 50 produced) of Parmelian prints (gelatin silver emulsion on parchment paper). For the first time, George Eastman House is pleased to include this portfolio from its collection in this exhibition. Featured are many of Adams’s most famous images of the American West, but prepare to discover equally stupendous, if less well known, images such as Mud Hills, Arizona or Water and Foam. Many will be surprised to see that Adams did not confine himself to landscapes, but also made portraits and other subjects as humble as fence posts into images nearly as monumental as his beloved mountain ranges.

In the course of his long life, Adams would produce eight portfolios and have work in more than 500 exhibitions. A prolific writer, he published 37 books and hundreds of articles about photography. In 1932 Adams was instrumental in the founding of Group f/64, a short-lived but influential group of California photographers who brought artistic legitimacy to “straight” photography. Adams also helped establish the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona to house his archives. He received many national and international awards, honorary degrees, three Guggenheim Fellowships, and had a wilderness area and mountain named after him. He is the only photographer to be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, which he received in 1980. Adams died in Carmel, California on April 22, 1984.

This exhibition is organized by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.

PREMIER EXHIBITION SPONSORS:

Yvonne L. Boyington Family Fund within the Community Foundation of Greater Lakeland

EXHIBITION SPONSORS:

Mr. Lawrence Hjersted
Ron and Becky Johnson

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT BY:

Douglass Screen Printers, Inc.
The Ledger

Related Programs

MEMBERS’ CELEBRATION
Friday, February 2, 2007 | 6:00 – 8:30pm
FREE for Museum members, $10 for Non-Members

Come to Polk Museum of Art for the opening reception for Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius. The evening starts with a special lecture by John Szakowski, Director Emeritus of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Szarkowski is the most influential photography curator of the last half century, and his books, exhibitions, films and lectures have molded the current thinking about photography as an art form. After the lecture, you will have the opportunity to browse the Ansel Adams exhibition on your own. Light hors d’oeuvres will be served and a cash bar will be available.

DIALOGUES WITH ARTISTS SERIES: JOHN SZARKOWSKI
Director Emeritus of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
Friday, February 2, 2007 | 6:00pm
FREE to Members, $10 Guests

The Museum is pleased to kick off Dialogues with Artists, a new series of educational events, at the opening reception for Ansel Adams: Celebration of Genius. On Friday, February 2 at 6:00pm, John Szarkowski will introduce the work of Ansel Adams through a presentation in the Museum’s auditorium. Szarkowski is undoubtedly the most influential person of the last half century on the development of photography in the United States. From 1962 to 1991, he served as Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, turning a department that Ansel Adams had helped found in 1940 into the most dynamic photography collection in the country. During his tenure, he launched the careers of Garry Winogrand, Diane Arbus, and Lee Friedlander, sealed the reputations of figures such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, and Eugene Atget, and gave Ansel Adams a one-person exhibition in 1979. He has taught at Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and New York University and has authored dozens of important books including The Photographer’s Eye (1964), Looking at Photographs (1973), Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960 (1978), and Photography Until Now (1989-90). In 1990, U.S. News & World Report said: “Szarkowski’s thinking, whether Americans know it or not, has become our thinking about photography”. In 2001, he curated the major exhibition Ansel Adams at 100 for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and wrote the accompanying catalogue, perhaps the most definitive book on Adams.

The Dialogues With Artists Series is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

SLIDE SLAM & JPEG JAM
Theme: Landscapes Near and Far
February 12, 2007 | 6:00pm

Photographers are invited to present (5) slides or digital images of their work for group discussion. Participate in an evening of sharing work and ideas with other photography enthusiasts, tour the Ansel Adams exhibition with a docent or curator and enjoy light refreshments. Call the Education Department at 863-688-5423 for ticket information.

SPECIAL FILM SERIES
Every Wednesday and Sunday, February 3 – April 1, 2007 | 1:00pm
NO FILM Sunday, February 24 and Sunday, March 10

American Experience: Ansel Adams
PBS describes Ric Burns’ film biography of Adams as “an intimate portrait of a man for whom life and art were inextricably connected with photography and wilderness.” Few American artists have enjoyed more widespread popularity while alive than Ansel Adams. A visionary photographer, pioneer in technique, and environmental crusader, Adams took part in a revolution in photography, and in the ways he saw “the continuous beauty of the things that are.” (90 min.)

Speaking of Art: John Szarkowski on Ansel Adams
This film on Ansel Adams tackles the deeper significance of Adams’ work beyond his enduring popularity as an environmental pioneer and rhapsodist of the American West. “Adams did not photograph the landscape as a matter of social service, but as a form of private worship. It was his own soul that he was trying to save. He was confessing to a private knowledge that is almost surely incommunicable but that he was nevertheless obliged to attempt to photograph.” (40 min.)

John Szarkowski: A Life in Photography
is a 47-minute video produced by Richard B. Woodward. (Checkerboard Foundation, 1998). For nearly 30 years, from 1962-1991, John Szarkowski served as the Director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This film examines his double life as curator and photographer. Szarkowski, author of the classic Looking at Photographs, has taught generations how to think about and look at images. (Description courtesy of International Center of Photography.)

GALLERY TALKS
February 6 – March 27, 2007 | 10:30am

For eight Tuesday mornings join the Executive Director, Curator of Art, or Curator of Education for a tour of the Ansel Adams exhibition. Talks will be held February 6, 13, 20, and 27, and March 6, 13, 20, and 27.

No Paper Tigers: Paper Artworks from the Permanent Collection

December 2, 2006 – February 21, 2007

Perkins Gallery

Paper is often overlooked as a material for artworks. This exhibition includes artworks that present paper as sculptural material, as the means for creating collages, or as the backdrop for impressive drawings, paintings or prints. Among the artists represented in No Paper Tigers are Akiko Sugiyama, Roy De Forest, Lise Drost, Sam Gilliam, Bud Hopkins, Howardena Pindell, Kendall Shaw and Ann Turnley.

Gary Bolding: From Window to Wall

October 21, 2006 – January 28, 2007

Emily S. Macey Gallery

For more than twenty years, Gary Bolding has worked toward creating exquisitely polished, often surrealistic paintings that take thoughtful, but humorous looks at art historical and pop culture references. In paintings such as Man with a Flaming Wiener, he packs together layer upon layer of self-referential and more broadly cultural material. Most recently, however, Bolding has moved into an entirely different mode of painting: richly textured, highly abstracted, subtly colored, and large-scale. This new work, still layered to a strong degree, brings the imagery of his paintings back to the surface of the canvas, replacing a Renaissance view of the painting as window with a thick impasto that projects from the wall.

Currently Professor of Art at Stetson University, Bolding has had one-person exhibitions in venues throughout Florida, the Southeast, Europe and Mexico. He has received numerous awards and honors during his career, has been the recipient of two Individual Artist Fellowships from the State of Florida, and was a finalist for an NEA/Southern Arts Federation Fellowship.

The Fact of the Matter: Unusual Materials in Permanent Collection Artworks

September 9, 2006 – January 7, 2007

Ledger and Murray Galleries

Since the advent of Dada and Cubism, American and European artists have continued to expand the objects and substances from which artworks can be created. As technologies and ideas grow, the list of materials has followed. This exhibition includes works that are composed entirely or in part by materials such as terrazzo, resin, basalt, palm flower stalks, rhinestones, fossils, and cast rubber.

Herman Leonard: Artistic Stylings

August 19 – November 12, 2006

Perkins Gallery

Herman Leonard is one of this country’s most important portrait photographers. As a young man, he worked as an apprentice to renowned photographer Yousuf Karsh and worked with Karsh on his shoots of Einstein, Eisenhower and Truman. His career has included stints as Marlon Brando’s personal photographer and Playboy’s European photographer. And The Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC has honored him by housing his entire collection in the permanent archives of musical history. Though Leonard has become highly successful as a commercial photographer, he remains best known for his portraits of jazz musicians, which will be represented in this exhibition. His subjects include Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, and countless others. These aren’t studio portraits. Leonard was at Birdland when Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were performing. He was in the studios as Stan Getz recorded, in Paris to photograph Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, in New York for Nat King Cole, Lena Horne, and Miles Davis, and Monte Carlo for Frank Sinatra.

Beyond Leonard’s gift at sensing the right moment for the most dramatic image is his technical mastery of the photographic printing process. Rarely have photographs contained such depth or texture. As music writer Richard Williams once wrote of Leonard’s jazz portraits: “There could be no better symbol for the illicit mystery and poignant impermanence of jazz than the cigarette in a Herman Leonard photograph. Spiraling, billowing, hanging and twisting into shapes or oriental delicacy, the smoke is the perfect prop for the beautiful and sometimes tragic faces at the center of the night scenes.”

The exhibition is sponsored by Peterson & Myers, P.A., Robert and Malena Puterbaugh, and Kerry and Buffy Wilson.

Women Only! In Their Studios

July 15 – October 15, 2006

Dorothy Jenkins and Emily S. Macey Galleries

Though the art world has become more open to artists of all backgrounds, those outside and too often inside the art world fail to acknowledge the art historically important contributions of women artists. This extraordinary exhibition of major works by 20 artists addresses this issue. The artists in this exhibition are innovators who have added distinct marks along the path of art through their paintings, prints, photographs, collages, sculptures, and mixed media installations. Artists represented in the exhibition are a virtual “Who’s Who” of important living artists: Jennifer Bartlett, Amalia Mesa Bains, Camille Billops, Elizabeth Catlett, Linda Freeman, Ann Hamilton, Grace Hartigan, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Elizabeth Murray, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro, Laurie Simmons, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Joan Snyder, Pat Steir, Gail Tremblay, Jackie Winsor and Flo Oy Wong.

This exhibition has been curated by Eleanor Flomenhaft and the tour has been organized by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services.

Pictures of Words: The Use of Text in Art

May 13 – September 3, 2006

Ledger and Murray Galleries

Using works from the Museum’s Permanent Collection, this exhibition will examine the use of words within art, whether used as the primary image within an artwork or used more subtly within a composition. Artists represented in this exhibition will include Alice Aycock, Rocky Bridges, John Scott, Pat Steir and many others.

Inside the Outsider World: Folk Art from the Permanent Collection

May 20 – August 13, 2006

Perkins Gallery

As national interest in the work of folk or “self-taught” artists has risen, work by these artists has begun to attract more attention at art museums. In recent years, the Polk Museum of Art has acquired over sixty artworks by contemporary folk artists, all of which have been donated by Polk County collectors Jane Backstrom, Rodney Hardee, George Lowe, and William D. and Norma Canelas Roth, or by the artists themselves. Polk County is not just home to many collectors of folk art, but is also one of the most active places in Florida for folk artists. Through the guidance, generosity and energy of Mrs. Backstrom and Mr. Hardee, the Polk Museum of Art has been connected to the work of many Polk County folk artists as well as those from throughout Florida and the Southeast.

Inside the Outside World is the Museum’s first exhibition of its contemporary folk art collection. Local artists exhibited include Eugene Beecher, K.C. Bennett, Rodney Hardee, Duane Locke, Edward Ott, Joey Smollen, Donald Stone, Gene Thomas, Margot Warren, Bettye Williams, and Ruby C. Williams. Additional artists in the exhibition include John “Cornbread” Anderson, Mister Imagination, R.A. Miller, Mary Proctor, and Purvis Young.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by FMC FoodTech

AFTERMATH: Images from Ground Zero, Photography by Joel Meyerowitz

April 22 – July 9, 2006

Dorothy Jenkins and Emily S. Macey Galleries

Joel Meyerowitz is one of the most respected color photographers working today. His first book Cape Light is considered a classic work of color photography. He has had one-person exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and over 250 other museums.

On September 23, 2001, Meyerowitz took his camera to the site on which the World Trade Towers had stood. For the next eight months he recorded the process of clearing the wreckage and coping with the tragedy. At first denied permission to photograph the site, Meyerowitz persisted and his efforts are a testament to the power of documented history. This moving exhibition has been viewed by millions of people all over the world. It includes approximately 30 images, two of which are monumental: one measuring 8’ x 10’ and the other 20’ wide.

The idea for the exhibition came from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. A version of the exhibition was inaugurated by Colin Powell in the spring of 2002. To date, millions of people from across the globe have viewed these startling and beautiful images.

For more information about Joel Meyerowitz and his photography, visit www.joelmeyerowitz.com.

Views from Within: Christian Duran and Vickie Pierre

March 5 – May 14, 2006

Perkins Gallery

Christian Duran and Vickie Pierre are young artists living and working in Miami. Though they have known each other for a number of years and have even exhibited their work together in group exhibitions in the past, they work quite independently—Duran in his quiet home studio in Hialeah Gardens and Pierre in her studio in the heart of Miami Beach. At the same time there are interesting parallels in their work.

Duran and Pierre seek, in different yet distinctly poetic ways, to connect themselves to the greater world around them. Using delicate lines and colors that range from the earthiest browns to the softest pinks and blues, they express through their artworks the hope that there are forces of life anda love that link us to the world around us. These links, in turn, give each of us a stronger sense of ourselves.

Duran has converted his fascination with the systems of life into complex webs of lines that bring together natural and human forms. Plant roots and branches become human veins and then back again, all serving as vessels for life-sustaining substances. While there is a scientific aspect to his work, there is a much stronger sense of imagination and wonder. For there are not simply physical parallelsibetween the structures of plants and human anatomy in Duran’s drawings, collages and paintings, but metaphors for a spiritual union between all life forms. It is within this union that Duran demonstrates his artistic vision. As he has stated, “I aspire to find my own poetry concerning the intangible self, as well as bring to mind the spirit of the human psyche.” To accentuate the connections between art and nature, Duran mixes his own blends of pigment and metallic powders so that his creations not only shimmer with life but owe much of their essence to natural materials.

Pierre’s works also represent personal explorations and searches for connections. Her paintings from six to eight years ago are richly colored, small-scale settings in which dreamy narratives are presented. The titles reveal quite intimate moments, most often reading as love stories in miniature. Text is used in these earlier worksi both for its graphic/decorative impact and as evidence of the stories floatingi within the fantastic shapes and airy environment. The linear elements of these works have taken on increased prominence in Pierre’s most recent work. While de-emphasizing the density and sensuousness of the background, she has brought our attention to the flow of the lines across and even into the canvas. And the lines often have a tangible source: Pierre uses stamps representing Disney characters such as Sleeping Beauty to create the sense of flow and pattern seeni in paintings such as Mothers and Daughters. Though the bases for these works are often obscured through Pierre’s reworking of the stamped images, their romantic and nostalgic qualities represent our impulse to reach out to others even as we continue to explore the mystery of our selves.

Pop Art 1956-2006: The First 50 Years

February 18 – April 16, 2006

Dorothy Jenkins and Emily S. Macey Galleries

Exhibition Sponsored by ASC Geosciences, Inc.

Though history has numerous examples of the intersection between fine art and popular culture (Shakespeare managed this feat quite easily), it was not until the post-World War II years that a large number of visual artists began to take direct aim at the rapid growth of consumer culture. Hollywood, Detroit, and Madison Avenue became producers of not only commercial products, but of inspiration to a generation of artists, providing the foundation of what came to be known as “Pop Art”. What is especially important about this half-century old movement is that its impact is still as vital and visible as ever, since each era’s generation of young artists has been influenced by its own unique forms of popular culture.

Ironically, the post-war boom first inspired a group of young British artists to create collages that, despite their modest size, encapsulated the fast-paced world promoted by magazines, television, and movies. In 1956, British artist Richard Hamilton created the collage Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? that featured images cut from magazines of consumer goods, a pin-up girl, and a male bodybuilder holding a large lollipop printed with the word “POP”. By not only illustrating the goods and interests of the moment but using commercial reproductions of these goods and interests, Hamilton showed his American counterparts how they could use art to address their own culture.

At the same time, some American artists were trying to find a path away from the heroic aims of the Abstract Expressionists. In the early post-war years, Abstract Expressionists created powerful paintings that demonstrated their unique gifts as artists and were testaments to the spirit of rugged individuality at the core of American self-identity. However, with the advent of the television era and the growth of the transportation industry, the American cultural landscape began to change rapidly. Those who would become known as Pop artists responded with an increased focus on depicting this country through the lens of the mass media: movies, television, billboards, magazines, comic books and newspapers.

This shift happened in part as an attempt by artists to reconnect themselves to the everyday, material world. This was indicated by the early work of Robert Rauschenberg about which he stated “I don’t want a picture to look like something it isn’t. I want it to look like something it is. And I think a picture is more like the real world when it’s made out of the real world.” Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns had begun creating work that were described as “Neo-Dada”, works that brought mundane objects to the forefront and attempted to push the hand of the artist into the background.

By 1960 a new generation of American artists was beginning to adapt their varying interests in American culture to new forms of art. This exhibition features artists born between 1920 and 1937 who have made important contributions to American Pop Art. Many of these artists were recognized widely as young artists. Others are only now beginning to receive their due adulation. This exhibition includes work by Jim Dine, Red Grooms, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, James Rosenquist, Wayne Thiebaud, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann as well as British artists Patrick Caulfield and David Hockney.

Because Pop Art is tied to the material culture of our country, it remains as flexible and important as ever. Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and successive generations have adapted new media technologies and interests into their artworks, following the trail of the artists represented in this exhibition. For this reason, Pop Art’s influence will be felt for years to come.