Past Exhibitions
American Beauty:
Painting and Sculpture from The Detroit Institute of Arts 1770-1920
In its relatively short history, America has produced a vibrant and diverse visual tradition of its own, with fact, pragmatism, awe and a description of place at the heart of its artistic production. European settlers in this new land sought to reinvent notions of government, religion, society and even art, as they forged a uniquely American style and definition of beauty.
Now, visitors to Phoenix Art Museum will have an unprecedented opportunity to celebrate America's best in a visually stunning exhibition of painting and sculpture from the period in which American art was born and came into its own. Beginning with America's earliest homegrown talent, John Singleton Copley, the exhibition includes 92 masterpieces by such American greats as John Singer Sargent, Gilbert Stuart, Mary Cassatt, Winslow Homer, Frederic Church, William Merritt Chase, Albert Bierstadt, the Peale family, Robert Henri, and many more.
One of the strongest of American traits is our urge to define what is American. As American artists sought to create a visual national identity, they looked to both their own dreams and to tutelage from abroad. While American artists alternated between homegrown creativity and international influences, certain characteristics reappear in their art - an adherence to truthful depiction, directness, idealism and a belief in progress.
American Beauty includes some of the best-known works representing the major American art movements and trends of the period, including Hudson River School and American Impressionism. From the faces of through the Civil War, global landscapes and the cosmopolitan trends of the later 19th century and early 20th century, the exhibition provides an extraordinary exploration of the exemplary art - and artists - of our own nation.
American Beauty, organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts from its collection of American art - one of the finest in the United States - explores the development of our nation's visual history through almost two centuries.
Phoenix Art Museum is proud to be the first American venue scheduled to present this exhibition before it goes home to Detroit after a successful European tour to: National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; and American Museum at Giverny, France.
Left: Watson and the Shark, John Singleton Copley, 1782. Oil on canvas. Founders Society Purchase, Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund. The Detroit Institute of Arts. Right: The Trappers' Return, George Caleb Bingham, 1851. Oil on canvas. Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. The Detroit Institute of Arts.