past exhibitions
2011
Flirting with Abstraction: Modern and Contemporary
Art of Philadelphia in the Promised Gift of Karen Segal
and Woodmere's Collection
September 25, 2011 – January 8, 2012
Open House on Sunday, September 25 | 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Flirting with Abstraction brings together some seventy-five works by Philadelphia artists who have used the language of abstraction—color, line, texture, scale, and form—to express the ideas, emotions, and sensuality of life's experiences. Anchored by fine examples of abstract painting and sculpture from Woodmere's collection, the exhibition also presents selections from the transformative promised gift of artist and Chestnut Hill resident Karen Segal, which will bring previously unimagined depth to the Museum's holdings of twentieth- and twenty-first century art. Cell phone audio tour available. (Image: Jacqueline Cotter (born 1921), San Miguel, 1992, Pencil over oil on Mylar. Collection of Karen Segal.)
Mary G. L. Hood and
Philadelphia Modernism
September 25, 2011 – January 8, 2012
Women artists were central to the evolution of modern art in twentieth-century Philadelphia. Among them was Mary G. L. Hood (1886–1967), a painter whose art is characterized by brilliant color, a lyrical sense of line, a playful willingness to distort spatial relations, and a flirtation with primitivism. This exhibition of some seventy-five paintings also features work by Hood's daughter, Agnes Hood Miller (1908–1967), and other artists who similarly found their voices amid the convergence of modernist forces in Philadelphia and New Hope. Cell phone audio tour available. (Image: Mary G.L. Hood (1886-1967), Untitled, undated, oil on canvas, 12 x 10 in. Collection of Sarah Hood Bodine.)
Kids Care 18
November 6 - December 18
Reception: Saturday, November 12, 2-4 p. m.
Helen Millard Children's Gallery
FREE
Beautiful artworks made by hundreds of children from around the Philadelphia region are on exhibit in this collaborative project between Woodmere Art Museum and WXPN's Kids Corner. All artworks are made as holiday gifts.
Violet Oakley: The Building of the House of Wisdom
September 25, 2011 – November 6, 2011
In 1910–11, Violet Oakley collaborated with architect Frank Miles Day on a monumental mural cycle for the entrance hall of a town house designed for Charlton Yarnall at 17th and Locust Streets in Philadelphia. Inspired by Oakley's love of Renaissance art, her original design included a central glass dome, three large lunettes, four pendentives, and six smaller octagonal panels built into the architecture. The completed mural cycle was a metaphor for the progression of human civilization.
Impressions
September 11, 2011 – October 23, 2011
Reception: Sunday, October 2, 2-4 p. m
Helen Millard Children's Gallery
FREE
Impressions features the artwork from students of Edgewood Elementary, Pennsbury High School and Quarry Hill Elementary. Through direct observation and incorporating their own style, students used the elements and principles of design to depict their surroundings in unique and expressive ways.
Response, Remembrance, and Reflection
September 9, 2011 – 18, 2011
FREE
In the days that followed September 11, 2001, the museums of New York proved their importance to the city's emotional and spiritual life. Everyone was in mourning and shock, and many people gravitated to the city's museums. Many people, and especially artists, responded to the intellectual and emotional upheaval of September 11 by turning to art and creativity, channeling their energy into the process of making something. Tens year later, New York carries its scars, but is rebuilding, and we see and feel that destruction is followed by rebirth.
Response, Remembrance and Reflection showcases works that were created in the aftermath of September 11, including works by Lynn Blackwell Denton, Charles Kaprelian, Peter Paone, Marc Salz, Bill Scott, and Stuart Shils. We will also show works from the collection by Frank Bender, Julius Bloch, Diane Burko, Murray Dessner Sam Feinstein, and others.
(Image: Lynn Blackwell Denton (b. 1941), Aureole, 2001, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 79
in.; Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the artist, 2011)
Still Life
On View until September 23, 2011
Corridor Gallery
FREE
Woodmere’s collection is rich in still life across a variety of media. On display in this gallery are paintings and drawings that have long been anchors in the Museum’s holdings, along with recent gifts and loans from close friends of the institution. As is evident throughout the exhibitions on view, women artists are well represented at Woodmere. This is the legacy of Edith Emerson, the Museum’s director from 1940 to 1978. Emerson was an artist herself who approached art made by women with the same seriousness as she did art made by men. Woodmere has continued to build on Emerson’s work, and it is a testament to the progressive nature of the Museum’s collection.
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