Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The Thaw Collection of American Indian Art hits the road

By: Eva Fognell, Curator of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art

LATE BREAKING NEWS FROM THE CURATORIAL DEPARTMENT

So, as you’ve probably noticed, for the last few years many of us here in the curatorial department have been organizing a traveling exhibition of art from the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art. It has all come together in the last year as some of the finest art museums in the country have signed on to host the show. The date for the first departure is getting close! The exhibition premieres at the Cleveland Museum of Art where it will open on March 6th and be on view to the end of May 2010. Then in the fall of 2010 it will go to the Minneapolis Institute of Art where it will be until early January of 2011 and then in December of 2011 its off to the Indianapolis of Art. Check out our official press release.

The exhibit is a masterpiece collection of American Indian art but on a more subtle level it also tells a story about its collectors, Eugene and Clare Thaw. All of you that are familiar with the Fenimore Art Museum knows that the objects were collected and are displayed here as art. It is going to be so exciting for me to see the things I take care of on a daily bases in other environments. And for Chris Rossi and I who both are traveling with the exhibit to install and deinstall at the venues it will also be an experience we could call “Three winters in the Midwest.” As a native Swede, Minneapolis may be almost like home with its January weather!

Stay tuned – I’ll be sure to keep you updated with more of our preparations.

Top: Mask, ca. 1800-1840. Tlingit, Southeast Alaska, Thaw Collection, Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y., T0214. Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor.

Bottom: Shield, ca. 1860, Crow, (Apsaalooke), Montana, Thaw Collection, Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y., T0048. Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor.


No comments:

Blog Widget by LinkWithin