Grandma Moses
dal 25/1/2008 al 12/4/2008
Segnalato da
25/1/2008
Grandma Moses
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota
The artist provided soothing images of rural life to a country beset with the greatest challenges of the XX century. While often represented as a folk or outsider artist, Moses was the darling of New York galleries and politicians, and crafted a popular reputation that carried her far beyond her upstate village.
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is pleased to honor one of America’s most celebrated folk artists, Grandma Moses, in Grandma Moses: Grandmother to the Nation, open Jan. 26 – April 13, 2008 in the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing.
“This exhibition certainly adds to the exciting diversity of artistic representation and subject matter being shown at the Ringling Museum,” said Dr. Stephen Borys, Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections at the Ringling Museum. “Through her intense, focused, and remarkably optimistic documentation of her own life, Grandma Moses has left us with a very personal narrative, as well as a bird’s eye view of America’s rural past.”
Grandma Moses, born Anna Mary Robertson Moses, began painting at age 76, when her hands became too crippled by arthritis to do embroidery. At the age of 78, she held her first exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. During her 101- year-life Grandma Moses painted over 1,000 pictures, 25 of them after her 100th birthday.
Drawing from memory and the landscape of upstate New York for subject matter, Grandma Moses’s paintings are icons of the simple life. The subject of her paintings range from the calmness of the season’s first snow to the excitement and anticipation of spring’s arrival in rural America, and often include farm animals, barns, sleighs and people.
This general heartiness of subject matter and the optimism and sense of comfort they provide often led critics to label Grandma Moses as a folk artist; however Moses was the darling of New York galleries and Washington politicians. She achieved immense fame during her artistic career, crafting a popular reputation that carried her far beyond her upstate New York village. Her biography as a farm wife painting at her kitchen table was endlessly repeated, and she made public appearances at department stores and cooking contests.
The exhibition is comprised of approximately 40 works—including 25 paintings and several of Grandma Moses personal items such as her wicker rocking chair, a pin cushion with beeswax, and a variety of painting supplies—and represents several themes including Regionalism, Women’s Work, the Cold War, and also Grandma as Celebrity.
Theater programs in the Historic Asolo Theater and educational programs for adults, children and families will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition. For more information, visit www.ringling.org.
The exhibition is organized by the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York and curated by Lee Kogan, Curator of Special Exhibitions and Public Programs at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, and Karal Ann Marling, Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.
Fenimore Art Museum, founded in 1944, is the museum showcase for the New York State Historical Association (NYSHA). The Association features nationally recognized collections of American folk art, 19th-centure American fine art, and the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art. Through changing art and history exhibitions for adults and children, interactive hands-on programs, guided tours, and distance learning programs available to classrooms nationwide, Fenimore Art Museum brings to life out cultural heritage and celebrates America’s artistic tradition and history. The New York State Historical Association is a private, non-profit educational institution.
Grandma Moses: Grandmother to the Nation is funded in part by The Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent federal grant-making agency; New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities; and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Ringling Museum’s exhibitions and programs are funded in part by a grant from the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, Cultural Institutions Program.
General Admission includes the Ringling Museum of Art, special exhibitions,Cà d’Zan Mansion, Circus Museum,Mable’shistoric Rose Garden and Florida’s only rose test gardens, all on 66 acres of lushly landscaped grounds. Adults are $19; senior citizens (65 and over) are $16; children ages 6-17 are $6. Free Admission for children 5 and under accompanied by an adult, museum members. Advance tickets are available by calling 941.358.3180. Visit for more information.
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida State University, is the largest museum/university complex in the nation. It preserves the legacy of John and Mable Ringling, educating and enabling a large and diverse audience to experience and take delight in a world-renowned collection of fine art; Cà d’Zan, the Ringling historic mansion; the Circus Museum; the Original Asolo Theater; and historic architecture, courtyard, gardens and grounds overlooking Sarasota Bay.
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
5401 Bay Shore Road - Sarasota