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Manifest and Mundane: Scenes of Modern America from the Wolfsonian CollectionSeptember 8, 2011 thru August 31, 2012'MANIFEST AND MUNDANE: SCENES OF MODERN AMERICA FROM THE WOLFSONIAN COLLECTION’Exhibition on View at The Wolfsonian–FIU Beginning September 8, 2011 Miami Beach, FL (August 22, 2011)—The Wolfsonian–Florida International University presents Manifest and Mundane: Scenes of Modern America from The Wolfsonian Collection,an exhibition of more than fifty American paintings, sculptures, and fine art prints from the 1920s to the 1940s, drawn from The Wolfsonian’s collection of fine arts, with loans from the museum’s founder, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. On view from September 8, through August 2012, the exhibition explores how artists manifested in their work the most profound and the most mundane aspects of American life. While the artworks provide personal records of the nation, they also express collectively held attitudes about the landscape, the built environment, domestic life, work, and leisure—themes that are prevalent throughout The Wolfsonian’s collection. Many of the works on view in Manifest and Mundaneinvoke the myth of the landscape as the basis for meditations on national character. “Landscape has long served as a pivotal element in the development of American identity,” notes the exhibition’s curator, Marianne Lamonaca, associate director for curatorial affairs and education. “The land symbolically represents a place of spirituality and renewal but at the same time the land is a place of everyday dwelling, of ordinariness.” Several of the works depict the common course of life: nurturing, constructing, cultivating community, sunbathing, attending a fair. Torvalt Arnt Hoyer’s Barn (1938) conveys the simplicity and tranquility of the countryside, where a lone farmer works, far removed from the turmoil of modern city life. Sunshine Canyon (1936-39), a print by Carlos Anderson, shows a bird’s-eye view of a New York City rooftop where people of all ages have gathered to rest, sunbathe, and play. Burr Singer’s Missouri Woman (1938), an archetypal image of a strong Midwestern farm woman, is in marked contrast to Francis de Erdely’s The Welder (c. 1942), which depicts a young, bare-chested welder at rest. Singer’s image presents the farm woman as a symbol of American self-sufficiency and hard work, while de Erdely emphasizes the welder’s physical form and inner character as separate from his occupation. Manifest and Mundane—Page 2 Other artworks introduce discord into the workday scene: industry encroaching on the soil, the demands of social justice interrupting domestic order, and disaster disrupting domestic routine.Fire in the Barn (c. 1939) by Lue Osborne shows a mother with her children looking on as men battle a fire that threatens to destroy the family’s property and livelihood. In Steelworker’s Family (1938), Harry Sternberg juxtaposes the activities inside a worker’s home with the bleak industrial setting of blast furnaces, smoke stacks, and ever-present clouds of smoke. Wolfsonian founder Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. gifted many of the artworks in the exhibition to Florida International University in 1997 when he made the landmark donation of his collection, and its historic building, to the state of Florida. For Wolfson, it was “the spiritual manifestation within those objects” that ultimately led him to collect and donate nearly 100,000 works. “I wanted to fathom human behavior and the motivation behind it in each object.” In celebration of the opening of the exhibition, The Wolfsonian will present a curator’s tour with Marianne Lamonaca on September 16, 2011 at 6:30pm, open to Propagandist-level ($125) members and above. A reception begins at 6:30pm, followed by the tour at 7pm. To RSVP, become a member, or change your membership level, contact Ian Rand at 305.535.2631or ian@thewolf.fiu.edu. About The Wolfsonian–Florida International University The Wolfsonian is a museum, library, and research center that uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design, to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, historical, and technological changes that have transformed our world. The collections comprise approximately 120,000 objects from the period of 1885 to 1945—the height of the Industrial Revolution to the end of the Second World War—in a variety of media including furniture; industrial-design objects; works in glass, ceramics, and metal; rare books; periodicals; ephemera; works on paper; paintings; textiles; and medals. The Wolfsonian is located at 1001 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, FL. Admission is $7 for adults; $5 for seniors, students, and children age 6 -12; and free for Wolfsonian members, State University System of Florida staff and students with ID, and children under six. The museum is open Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday from noon-6pm; Thursday and Friday from noon-9pm; and is closed on Wednesday. Contact us at 305.531.1001 or visit us online at www.wolfsonian.org for further information. The Wolfsonian receives ongoing support from The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council; the William J. and Tina Rosenberg Foundation; United Airlines, the Official Airline of The Wolfsonian–FIU; and Bacardi USA, Inc. About FIU Florida International University is one of the 25 largest universities in the nation, with more than 42,000 students. Nearly 130,000 FIU alumni live and work in South Florida. Its colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. As one of South Florida’s anchor institutions, FIU is worlds ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. The opening of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in August 2009 has enhanced the university’s ability to create lasting positive change in our community. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/. |
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