Past Exhibitions

Contests, combat, and commemoration played important and often interrelated roles in ancient art, life, and culture. This small exhibition, drawn primarily from the Museum’s permanent collection, explores a number of these connections within both mythological and historical contexts. Altogether, some eighty works of Greek, Roman, Etruscan, and Egyptian art are included, ranging from the sixth century BC to the fourth century AD, and from painted pottery to sculpture in terracotta, bronze, and stone.  July 14, 2018 through November 4, 2019

Tableau and Transformation presents an overview of the Tampa Museum of Art’s holdings in 20th-century photography, a cornerstone of the Museum’s permanent collection. The exhibition looks at how artists have used distinct darkroom effects and studio practices to create new narratives in photography.  Artists such as James Casebere, Robert Cumming, Stephen Frailey, Sandy Skoglund, and William Wegman create constructed environments, often blurring the boundaries of truth and fiction in their images. Photographers Blythe Bohnen, Duane Michals, Arnulf Rainer, Lucas Samaras, Cindy Sherman examine the transformation of one’s self as a means to explore identity, gender, and place.

This exhibition features approximately 50 photographs with objects ranging in date from the mid-1960s to through the early 2000s. Predominately drawn from the Museum’s permanent collection, Tableau and Transformation includes artists John Baldessari, Morton Bartlett, Zeke Berman, Blythe Bohnen, Victor Burgin, James Casebere, Eileen Cowin, Robert Cumming, Robert Fichter, Stephen Frailey, Les Krims, Duane Michals, Patrick Nagatani and Andreé Tracey, Arnulf Rainer, Richard Ross, Lucas Samaras, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, Sandy Skoglund, Joel Sternfeld, and William Wegman. Tableau and Transformation also features key loans from Trenam Law’s photography collection and includes companion photographs by several of the above-mentioned artists, as well as Laurie Simmons and Doug and Mike Starn.

As the Tampa Museum of Art nears its 100th anniversary, exhibitions in 2019 and 2020 focus on the breadth of the institution’s permanent collection, as well as examine its collecting history. The Tampa Museum of Art’s holdings are unique, with collections of Greek and Roman antiquities, as well as modern and contemporary art.

Abstract Expressionism: A Social Revolution, Selections from the Haskell Collection, presents twenty-five works from the Haskell Collection indicative of Abstract Expressionism as a unifying direction in Post-World War II art. The exhibition highlights artists associated with the influential first and second generations of Abstract Expressionist painters including Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, Helen Frankenthaler, Franz Kline, Morris Louis, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Mark Rothko, and Theodoros Stamos. Later works by Gerhard Richter, Jack Goldstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Frank Stella respond or reflect on the lasting legacy of Abstract Expressionism in both the US and abroad. Viewed together, the works in Abstract Expressionism: A Social Revolution address how individual artistic expression and independence from institutional values altered the course of painting. In this exhibition, visual vocabulary will be discussed in relationship to the artists’ collective objectives and individual intentions.

In addition to those mentioned above, artists represented in Abstract Expressionism: A Social Revolution include Josef Albers, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Karel Appel, Sam Francis, Michael Goldberg, Paul Jenkins, Jean Miotte, Judy Pfaff, Jean-Paul Riopelle, James Rosenquist, and Jack Tworkov. Unless noted otherwise, all works from the Haskell Collection.

Presenting Sponsors: Maureen and Doug Cohn

Catalogue Sponsors: Dr. and Mrs. Robert G. Isbell

As the Tampa Museum of Art nears its 100th anniversary, exhibitions in 2019 and 2020 will focus on the breadth of the institution’s permanent collection, as well as examine its collecting history. The Tampa Museum of Art’s holdings are unique, with distinct collections of Greek and Roman antiquities, as well as modern and contemporary art.

Echoing Forms: American Abstraction from the Permanent Collection presents paintings, works on paper, and photography by major artists associated with post-war American abstraction. Abstract Expressionism emerged as the dominant genre of painting in the mid-1940s. For the next 40 years, artists working across media would examine and redefine the boundaries of abstraction. From Robert Motherwell’s serial compositions of repeating ovoid and geometric forms, to the patterned brushwork of Alma Thomas, and Aaron Siskind’s photographic studies of found objects echoing gestural paint strokes, the Tampa Museum of Art’s collection includes work from influential artists associated with the rise of American abstraction.

Artists featured in Echoing Forms also include Joseph Albers, Helen Frankenthaler, Adolph Gottlieb, Ellsworth Kelly, Elaine de Kooning, Kenneth Noland, Frank Stella, and others. Echoing Forms: Abstraction from the Permanent Collection is a companion show to the special exhibition Abstract Expressionism: A Social Revolution.

Oswaldo Vigas: Transformations presents the first American survey of artist Oswaldo Vigas (Venezuelan, 1923-2014). Organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the exhibition examines Vigas’ influential career and his contributions to 20th-century modernism. A prolific artist, Vigas found inspiration in both the natural landscape of his native Venezuela and the European avant-garde. Oswaldo Vigas: Transformations focuses on works created between 1940 and 1980, and demonstrates the evolution of Vigas’ distinct artistic style. In the late 1940s, Vigas focused on figurative abstraction and created his vibrant series of Bruja (or witch) paintings. Cubism and constructivism influenced Vigas and by the 1950s, he shifted away from figuration and moved towards geometric abstraction. The works on view illustrate the scope of Vigas’ projects, from studio painter to muralist, and highlight the importance of his creative achievements.

Born in 1923 in Valencia, Venezuela, Vigas studied medicine at Universidad de los Andes (ULA) in Mérida, Venezuela. In the 1950s, he gave up his medical practice to focus on his artwork. Vigas spent the next decade working and exhibiting his work in Paris, France. Vigas is celebrated as one of Latin America’s preeminent 20th-century painters, alongside artists such as Roberto Burle Marx, Wifredo Lam, and Rufino Tamayo. Vigas’ work has been featured in exhibitions around the globe and resides in prominent private and museum collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Art Museum of the Americas. Vigas passed away in 2014 in Caracas, Venezuela.

This annual high school art exhibition features exemplary work created by high school students throughout the 14^th Congressional District and Hillsborough County. Students compete for two top prizes: the Museum Choice Award and the Congressional Choice Award. The artwork selected for the Congressional Choice Award will continue to represent the district in the National Congressional High School Art Competition, hanging in the Cannon Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol for one year. Additionally, the recipient of this award receives a trip to Washington, D.C. to attend the National Awards Ceremony in June 2019.

The 14th Congressional District and Next Generation High School Art Competition is presented in partnership with the Office of U.S. Representative, Kathy Castor.

Special thanks to the judging committee and award sponsors for their support

Arts Council of Hillsborough County

Florida Museum of Photographic Arts

Florida Watercolor Society

Hillsborough County Public Schools

Southwest Airlines

This exhibition is organized by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY.

This exhibition explores the more than five-decade career of one of America’s most beloved artists, Robert Indiana (American, 1928–2018). A selective survey of Indiana’s sculpture, it also includes numerous paintings, prints, and drawings, highlighting how Indiana’s thinking in visual form crossed different media.

This quintessentially American artist returned frequently to autobiographical motifs, symbols, and imagery, often after many decades of quiet reflection and rumination, building a corpus of work that ever more meaningfully reflected what it meant to be an American artist—and what it meant to be Robert Indiana—as the years passed. While LOVE will likely always remain the artist’s greatest contribution in the public imagination, his work beyond and apart from this memorable image places Indiana among the great American artists of the second half of the twentieth century. This exhibition introduces lesser-known late works—the Vinalhaven Woods, bronze editions of sculptures from different eras in his career, and the never-before shown marble LOVEs—to make the case for the breadth and import of Indiana’s achievement.

The Tampa Museum of Art is pleased to present Yayoi Kusama’s LOVE IS CALLING, one of the artist’s iconic Infinity Rooms, on loan from the Vinik Family Foundation Collection. An immersive, experiential work of art, LOVE IS CALLING invites visitors to enter a mirrored room with tentacle-like soft sculptures hanging from the ceiling and positioned on the floor. These forms glow with changing colors and feature Kusama’s signature polka dots. Mirrored walls create a kaleidoscopic effect, with the reflected imagery of the tentacles seemingly extending into infinite space. Visitors hear audio of the artist reciting a love poem in Japanese as they walk throughout the installation.

Yayoi Kusama (Japanese, b. 1929) is one of today’s most recognized and celebrated artists. In addition to her widely popular Infinity Rooms, such as LOVE IS CALLING, Kusama creates vibrant paintings, works on paper, and sculpture with abstract imagery. Her artwork has been shown and collected by leading institutions across the globe and she is considered “the world’s most popular artist.” A comprehensive retrospective, organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, is currently travelling around the US and Canada. In October 2017, the Yayoi Kusama Museum opened in Tokyo. The artist lives and works in Tokyo.

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Patricia Cronin, Aphrodite, and the Lure of Antiquity: Conversations with the Collection is the inaugural exhibition in a biennial series exploring synergy between collections that may initially strike visitors as wholly separate from one another – namely, classical antiquities and modern and contemporary art. Patricia Cronin (American, b. 1963) is an internationally recognized Brooklyn-based artist uniquely positioned for such a visual conversation. Winner of a Rome Prize in Visual Art in 2006-2007, and past Trustee of the American Academy in Rome, Cronin is deeply interested in the ancient world, which she frequently references in her work. For the first commission in our biennial series, Cronin has created a large outdoor sculpture of Aphrodite inspired by a fragmentary 1st-century AD marble torso of Aphrodite in the Museum’s collection. Entitled Aphrodite Reimagined, Cronin’s sculpture re-envisions the Museum’s Aphrodite fragment as a monumental “complete” sculpture with a stone torso and translucent head, arms, and legs. The sculpture invites viewers to reconsider the narrative of an ancient work heavily restored after its rediscovery, and acts as a metaphor for shifting certainties about human history. Cronin and Museum curators will also pair an Etruscan cinerary urn from the Museum’s collection with multiple iterations of Cronin’s 2002 sculpture Memorial to a Marriage, a powerful artwork that references ancient and neoclassical funerary monuments as well as contemporary issues of social justice. The final gallery of the exhibition will comprise a visual dialogue between figural works by Cronin and several antiquities from the Museum’s permanent collection.

Inspired by the excellent artwork shown at all three venues of Skyway: A Contemporary Collaboration, the Tampa Museum of Art committed to show additional artwork by a Skyway artist or artists jointly chosen by the five exhibition curators. Artists exhibiting in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota were considered for Skyway Curators’ Choice. The selected artists are Claudia Ryan of Bradenton and Rob Tarbell of Sarasota, both of whom showed their work in Skyway at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg. TMA is delighted to exhibit a wider selection of their work in Tampa.

Skyway Selections: Curators' Choice

Claudia Ryan

b. 1952, Washington, DC

Lives in Bradenton and works in Sarasota.

Claudia Ryan has been aptly called both painter and poet, and at times her frenetic mark-making on canvas evokes the act of writing. With her densely layered and reworked paintings and drawings, Ryan states that she tries to “create an alternative universe of feeling using intuitive logic.” Her oeuvre also includes etchings published by Bleu Acier, Inc. in Tampa, with closely packed lines related to her other work and similarly suggestive of narrative. Ryan received her Certificate of Fine Art from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA; her BFA from the Ringling College of Art and Design, and an MFA from the University of South Florida. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at the Boca Raton Museum of Art; Maryland Institute College of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; and the Riverside Art Museum, CA.

Rob Tarbell

b. 1967, Findlay, OH

Lives and works in Sarasota.

Though drawing is at the heart of Rob Tarbell’s process, it is the creative and imaginative use of smoke that propels Tarbell’s work beyond just imagery. Tarbell began experimenting in 2006 with burning credit cards and using the resulting residue. He regarded this as an ironic acknowledgment of the self-help technique of burning items to separate oneself from an emotional attachment to material possessions. He has since added gift cards and 35 mm slides featuring his own work to the list of burnables. By selectively directing the smoke using a “herd and corral” method, he is able to create ethereal portraits of both people he knows and found images. In addition to his smoke drawings, Tarbell has also developed an innovative process for creating porcelain sculptures of stuffed animals, simultaneously cremating and preserving them. Tarbell earned an MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Tennessee, and has held teaching posts at several colleges and universities. He is represented by the Claire Oliver Gallery in New York City, and has had solo exhibitions at galleries throughout the United States.

Tampa Museum of Art will present Vapor and Vibration: The Art of Larry Bell and Jesús Rafael Soto. This exhibition places in dialogue, for the first time, the work of two of the 20th century’s most innovative artists exploring light and space. Since the 1960s, Soto and Bell have pushed the boundaries of traditional painting and sculpture with new materials and forms. While there have been several exhibitions devoted to each artist, Bell and Soto aims to present their works in a fresh context not yet explored by curators and art historians. Bell and Soto is not a survey or historical overview of the artists’ prolific careers. Rather, the show will juxtapose key bodies of work by both artists in three sections: Cubes and Structures; Vapor and Vibration; and Light and Transparency.

Cubes and Structures section will explore the reductive significance of the cube and the grid as both artists pushed beyond traditional painting formats and pedestal sculpture. Vapor and Vibration looks at how Soto and Bell have used color, as well as contrasting properties of light and dark, to render spatial illusion and optical effects in 2D planes. The final section, Light and Transparency, demonstrates the artists’ investigations of light, color, and surface in experiential-based sculpture and installation. Approximately 30-40 objects will be on view in Bell and Soto and will feature influential works from the 1960s through the present.

Presented by Maureen & Doug Cohn

From Muse and Myth to Figure and Gesture presents a selection of figurative prints in the Tampa Museum of Art’s collection made from the 1960s to today. This exhibition is a follow-up to From Dada and Op to Color Field and Pop: 50 Years of Prints from the Permanent Collection, the 2016 exhibition that featured primarily abstract prints in the Museum’s collection. From Muse and Myth to Figure and Gesture includes works by a range of artists interested in the body and figuration, and demonstrates the breadth of the Museum’s contemporary print collection, including new acquisitions by Max Neumann and Alex Katz. The show explores the artist’s muse, from Katz’s picture of his wife Ada Katz to Kenny Scharf’s portrayal of Jackie Kennedy. Norse mythology inspired Jim Dine’s suite The Mead of Poetry (1988), large-scale woodcuts printed in Tampa at USF’s Graphicstudio. Other artworks on view include Philip Pearlstein’s signature studies of the nude; Niki de Saint Phalle’s triumphant portraits of women in her Nana Power series; and Keith Haring’s iconic linear drawings exploring man’s devastating effect on the environment. From Muse and Myth to Figure and Gesture presents approximately 25 prints by the artists noted above, as well as Vito Acconci, CRASH, Jim Dine, Marisol, Lisa Yuskavage, and others.

One of the most beloved and best known folk art painters of baseball, George Sosnak (1924–1992) was a lifelong, passionate fan of the game. He parlayed his enthusiasm for the sport into two concurrent careers: first as a Minor League umpire, and eventually as an artist, meticulously painting baseballs decorated with the images and arcane statistics so dear to fans of the game.

Sosnak was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where from an early age he collected autographs from his hometown Pirates. When serving abroad in the Army late in World War II, he participated in military games as a player and umpire, but found that his talents were more suited to the latter. When he returned to the States, he enrolled in umpire school in Florida, where he was based for the remainder of his life. Eventually settling in Lakeland, Sosnak umpired in the Pioneer and Florida State Leagues (among others), and supplemented his income as a baker, construction worker, and a corrections officer.

When asked how he began painting, Sosnak—who had no artistic training—liked to tell the story that when he was an umpire in the 1950s, a young female fan asked him for a portrait of her favorite player on a ball. This interaction began an almost 40-year career, largely avocational, of producing colorful and increasingly intricate, themed baseballs. Some celebrated particular moments, some honored legendary players, and others marked championship teams.

Sosnak’s final self-chosen challenge was to create a ball for each player in the Baseball Hall of Fame, recreating his Hall of Fame plaque as well as an overview of the player’s career in glorious detail and color. Occasionally, he would decorate a two-dimensional format like correspondence or drawings with his appealing images. In the end, Sosnak is thought to have begun some 3,000 baseballs, and to have finished about 800. Having a Ball includes 57 George Sosnak artworks – 47 baseballs and 10 works on paper.

Organized by the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

From antiquity through the present day, artists and craftsmen have found inspiration in the flora, fauna, and other forms of the natural world. For many artists, the vase in particular has lent itself to flourishes borrowed from nature, often together with – or in the form of – flowers and birds. While the forms and functions of the resulting artworks vary widely, from emulations to adaptations, and from aesthetic beauty to utilitarian purpose, all share a common inspiration worth exploring more closely. From the embrace of natural forms by artists associated with Art Nouveau – a movement only recently reconnected by scholars to the classical tradition – to more complex representations of vases, birds, and flowers by post-war and contemporary artists, Inspired by Nature illustrates the beauty and vitality of the natural world alongside its many uncertainties.

Drawn primarily from the Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition includes more than two dozen artworks from a variety of media and time periods, in two dimensions and three. Of particular interest is Sensuous Triptych (2000) by Betty Woodman, a prominent American ceramicist whose recent passing prompted renewed attention to her work here in Tampa. Brightly painted and made of fired clay, with elements of painting, drawing, sculpture, and more, her work defies categorization. And just as its three pieces come together as one, the front sides and back sides communicating with one another, so too will the larger whole engage in dialogue with so many other vases, birds, and flowers displayed nearby.

In this exhibition—on view in the MacKechnie Gallery alongside The Classical World display in the Lemonopoulos Gallery—visitors will see a small sampling of the roles played by animals in ancient life, myth, and art. Whether as pets or pests, beasts of burden or symbols of status, animals are often represented naturalistically in ancient art, providing a ready connection between antiquity and the present day. But as hybrid creatures combining multiple animal and human forms (such as winged horses or centaurs), animals also populated the ancient imagination, reminding us of important differences between past and present.

The artifacts and artworks on view span broad geographical areas across more than a millennium (from well before 500 BC to after AD 500), in media ranging from black-figure and red-figure pottery to sculpture in terracotta, stone, and precious metal. Alongside numerous Greek, Etruscan, and Roman works from the Museum’s permanent collection are a number of significant works lent by other institutions and private collections. Most striking among these loans are a Roman marble lion sarcophagus from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and an early Christian mosaic with a dog in flying gallop from the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.

In the spirit of Skyway, the regional artist exhibition shared with museums in neighboring counties, Made in Tampa features Tampa-themed works by Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Richard Anuszkiewicz, and others who have worked in our city at various times in their careers. Taking its name from an important suite of works created by Rauschenberg in the early years of Graphicstudio at the University of South Florida, Made in Tampa aims to underscore the great diversity of artwork inspired by and produced in Tampa over the last several decades. Artists such as Donald Saff, Theo Wujcik, and others who worked closely with more famous luminaries throughout the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s are also included. Altogether, Made in Tampa features some 40 works across many media, including sculpture, painting, and a wide range of prints.

Sponsored in part by:

TMS of South Tampa

Following the tremendous audience response to the artwork shown in Tampa as part of Skyway: A Contemporary Collaboration, the Museum invited visitors to vote for their favorite TMA Skyway artist to be included in Skyway Selections: Audience Choice. More than 1200 ballots were cast this summer for the 22 Skyway artists with work on view in Tampa, and the results have now been tallied. Painters Elisabeth Condon and Bruce Marsh were the top vote-getters, and will share an exhibition in the Saunders Foundation Gallery beginning in December.

Thank you to all who voted, and congratulations to Elisabeth and Bruce!

Skyway Selections: Audience Choice

About the Artists

Elisabeth Condon

b. 1959, Los Angeles, CA

Lives and works in New York, NY and Tampa.

Elisabeth Condon’s vibrant paintings incorporate her many influences, ranging from decorative materials to art historical references. She finds inspiration in vintage fabric samples and wallpaper patterns, as well as classical Chinese scroll painting. Condon’s work is both abstract and pictorial, with textural surfaces that reflect her unique painting process. She starts each work by pouring acrylic paint across the canvas and builds the composition with imagery of tropical flora and gestural brushwork. Many paintings receive a light layer of colored glitter that renders a sense of luminosity within the canvas. Born in Los Angeles, Condon received her BFA from Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles and holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute, Chicago. Her work has been nationally recognized, and she has won numerous awards, including the 2015 Pulse Art Fair’s Pulse Prize. From 2003-2015, Condon was Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of South Florida. Her work resides in the permanent collections of the Tampa Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg.

Bruce Marsh

b. 1937, Inglewood, CA

Lives and works in Ruskin.

Known for his naturalistic style and abiding interest in the Florida landscape – both natural and built – Bruce Marsh has maintained for many years a fascination with the sky, and with the light and shadow that animate our surroundings. Like so many generations of artists working before and alongside him – Impressionists, Expressionists, Hyperrealists, and more – Marsh has spent his entire career exploring the potential of color, mark, and form. After many years focusing on nature, particularly the riverine landscape just outside his studio, Marsh has more recently returned to the human figure, both as a singular subject and as part of larger compositions, such as Tiki Bar and Figure Study, the large paintings selected for Skyway. Now Professor Emeritus at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he taught for 34 years, Marsh continues to paint each day. His work is in numerous private and public collections, in the Tampa Bay area and beyond.

Inspired by the excellent artwork shown at all three venues of Skyway: A Contemporary Collaboration, the Tampa Museum of Art committed to show additional artwork by a Skyway artist or artists jointly chosen by the five exhibition curators. Artists exhibiting in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota were considered for Skyway Curators’ Choice. The selected artists are Claudia Ryan of Bradenton and Rob Tarbell of Sarasota, both of whom showed their work in Skyway at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg. TMA is delighted to exhibit a wider selection of their work in Tampa.

Skyway Selections: Curators' Choice

Claudia Ryan

b. 1952, Washington, DC

Lives in Bradenton and works in Sarasota.

Claudia Ryan has been aptly called both painter and poet, and at times her frenetic mark-making on canvas evokes the act of writing. With her densely layered and reworked paintings and drawings, Ryan states that she tries to “create an alternative universe of feeling using intuitive logic.” Her oeuvre also includes etchings published by Bleu Acier, Inc. in Tampa, with closely packed lines related to her other work and similarly suggestive of narrative. Ryan received her Certificate of Fine Art from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA; her BFA from the Ringling College of Art and Design, and an MFA from the University of South Florida. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at the Boca Raton Museum of Art; Maryland Institute College of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; and the Riverside Art Museum, CA.

Rob Tarbell

b. 1967, Findlay, OH

Lives and works in Sarasota.

Though drawing is at the heart of Rob Tarbell’s process, it is the creative and imaginative use of smoke that propels Tarbell’s work beyond just imagery. Tarbell began experimenting in 2006 with burning credit cards and using the resulting residue. He regarded this as an ironic acknowledgment of the self-help technique of burning items to separate oneself from an emotional attachment to material possessions. He has since added gift cards and 35 mm slides featuring his own work to the list of burnables. By selectively directing the smoke using a “herd and corral” method, he is able to create ethereal portraits of both people he knows and found images. In addition to his smoke drawings, Tarbell has also developed an innovative process for creating porcelain sculptures of stuffed animals, simultaneously cremating and preserving them. Tarbell earned an MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Tennessee, and has held teaching posts at several colleges and universities. He is represented by the Claire Oliver Gallery in New York City, and has had solo exhibitions at galleries throughout the United States.

The Tampa Museum of Art presented a survey of paintings and works on paper by artist Mernet Larsen (American, b. 1940). Her work alludes to a range of art historical references, from 12th-century Japanese scrolls, 15th-century Italian painting, to the geometric abstractions of Russian artist El Lissitzky (1890-1941). Her early abstract compositions, such as Duccio’s Saint (1988) in the Tampa Museum of Art’s collection, reflect her ongoing formal explorations of experiential time, space, and color. Later figurative paintings, including the recent work Raft (2017), depict ordinary moments and activities—from reading in bed, attending casual dinners, to participating in faculty meetings. The exhibition Mernet Larsen: Getting Measured featured never-before-seen early drawings, a select group of studies and works on paper, and a survey of paintings from the 1960s to the present. Larsen’s art resides in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Walker Art Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg. The artist divides her time between Tampa and New York City.

Sponsored in Part By: The Stanton Storer Embrace the Arts Foundation and Cathy Clayton.

watch a conversation between Mernet Larsen and David Cohen 

Susanne Bartsch: Art-a-Porter presents the couture designs and looks worn by Susanne Bartsch, New York City’s famed “Queen of the Night.” The exhibition highlights her celebrated career in fashion, from her early days as a boutique owner in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood to her legendary parties in New York City’s underground club scene. Bartsch has been a muse to several designers, including Thierry Mugler, Zaldy, and the esteemed corset maker, Mr. Pearl. Her boutique was one of the first American stores in the 1980s to feature emerging British designers such as Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano, who are now amongst the most influential designers in the fashion industry. Susanne Bartsch: Art-a-Porter will feature 35 looks spanning Bartsch’s extraordinary career, including designs by Alexander McQueen, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, Zaldy, and the Blonds. Susanne Bartsch: Art-a-Porter provides inspiration for CITY 2017, the Museum’s fall fashion fundraiser on September 9.

Sponsored in Part By: Penny & Jeff Vinik and the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida on Arts and Culture.

Photorealism: 50 years of Hyperrealistic Painting traces the evolution of Photorealism from 1960 to today. The exhibition presents the work of some 30 artists known for their hyperrealistic depictions of ordinary objects and scenes of everyday life such as American diners, chrome features on cars and motorcycles, as well as meticulous portraits. Art dealer and author Louis K. Meisel coined the term “photorealism” in the late 1960s to describe large-scale paintings created to look photographic. Photorealism: 50 years of Hyperrealistic Painting features three generations of photorealist painters, including John Baeder, Robert Bechtle, Chuck Close, Richard Estes, Audry Flack, Ralph Goings, Yigal Ozeri, Raphaella Spence, and others. The Tampa Museum of Art is the only American venue on the international tour of Photorealism: 50 years of Hyperrealistic Painting, organized by the Institut für Kulturaustausch in Tübingen, Germany. Ralph Goings’s painting Collins Diner, from the Tampa Museum of Art permanent collection, is among the most important artworks in the exhibition.

Presented in Part By:

The Tampa Museum of Art celebrates the life and art of James Rosenquist (American, 1933-2017) in the exhibition James Rosenquist: In Memoriam. A pioneer of Pop Art and one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed artists, Rosenquist divided his time between New York City and Aripeka, Florida, where he maintained an office and studio. He often collaborated with USF’s Graphicstudio, and is regarded as one of the area’s most beloved and influential artists. Rosenquist’s involvement with our community included his tenure as Counselor to the Board of Trustees, an advisory role at the Tampa Museum of Art. James Rosenquist: In Memoriam features 11 prints, many large-scale, from the Museum’s permanent collection. Spanning 25 years of printmaking from 1975-2000, this intimate exhibition highlights the vibrant, graphic style that defines Rosenquist’s artistic legacy.

The Tampa Museum of Art’s photography collection includes many works that capture the beauty of Florida’s natural shorelines and tropical vegetation. This spotlight exhibition will focus on landscape photography from the past 30 years, highlighting important works by regional photographers such as Clyde Butcher, Abigail Perlmutter, and Rodger Kingston. Florida Images will also present pictures by photographers captivated by Florida’s sweeping skylines and lush flora, including Larry Silver and Woody Walters. Butcher’s black and white photograph Loxahatchee River 1 (1991), a recent acquisition, will be among the works on view.

The Tampa Museum of Art presented a survey of black and white works by the legendary artist Alex Katz (American, b. 1927). An artist of international renown, this exhibition featured Katz’s signature portraits of family and friends, renderings of Maine’s countryside, and ephemeral still lifes. The stark contrasts in light and shadow, as well as the emphasis on line and form, illustrate the beauty of Katz’s reductive black and white landscapes and figurative work. A select group of color works illustrates the relationship between Katz’s vibrant palette and the graphic quality of his black and white prints.

Known across the country as a hotbed for professional as well as amateur sports, the Tampa Bay region is blessed with dozens of extremely talented professional sports photographers, who each year capture many thousands of images for local teams and media outlets. Featuring work by eight of these photographers, Lens on Tampa Bay Sports included some of the best regional sports photographs shot over the last 14 years, from the victories of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII and the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs to the College Football National Championship Game played in Tampa on January 9, 2017.

From both thematic and aesthetic standpoints, many regional photographs could fit well into one or more sections of Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present. Rather than attempting to work local sports photography into a wider-ranging exhibition, however, we chose to group them together with one another, highlighting not only the beauty, drama, and emotion of sports, but also the many local contributors to the sports photography genre. Thus, for Lens on Tampa Bay Sports, the Museum invited submissions from numerous photographers, selecting 40 images to display here. Featured photographers included Scott Audette, Mike Carlson, Loren Elliott, Kim Klement, Casey Brooke Lawson, Matt May, Skip Milos, and Dirk Shadd.

Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present is one of the first museum exhibitions to put sports photographers in the forefront and is the most comprehensive presentation of sports photography ever organized. It encompasses approximately 230 works—from daguerreotypes and salted paper prints to digital images—that capture the universal appeal of sports, highlighting unforgettable moments of drama and excitement from around the globe.

The photographers represented in Who Shot Sports include Richard Avedon, Al Bello, David Burnett, Rich Clarkson, Georges Demeny, Dr. Harold Edgerton, Rineke Dijkstra, Brian Finke, Toni Frissell, Ken Geiger, LeRoy Grannis, David Guttenfelder, Ernst Haas, Charles “Teenie” Harris, Walter Iooss, Jr., Heinz Kleutmeier, Stanley Kubrick, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Neil Leifer, Étienne-Jules Marey, Bob Martin, Martin Munkacsi, Edward Muybridge, Catherine Opie, Leni Riefenstahl, Robert Riger, Alexander Rodchenko, Howard Schatz, Flip Schulke, George Silk, Barton Silverman, and others.

Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present is organized by the Brooklyn Museum and curated by Gail Buckland, Benjamin Menschel Distinguished Visiting Professor at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

From the Bank of America Collection

Manuel Carrillo (Mexican, 1906-1989), known as “El Maestro Mexicano,” is celebrated for his intimate photographs of workers, the elderly, and families in his native Mexico. Carrillo captures the kindred relationship between children and animals, with several works depicting the playful and affectionate bonds between humans and their four-legged companions. His black and white images portray empathy and admiration, as well as the everyday beauty of rural communities in post-revolutionary Mexico. His photos, distinct in their formal composition, focus on the expressions of his subjects and their daily rituals. Surrounding architecture and landscapes, as well as dramatic contrasts in light and shadow, emphasize the narrative aspect of Carrillo’s photographic stories.  The exhibition Manuel Carrillo: Mi Querido Mexico (My Beloved Mexico) presented nearly 30 of his photographs captured over a twenty-year period, from the late 1950s through the 1970s. This body of work illustrates Carrillo’s masterful ability to capture the mood of his home country in an era of cultural transformation and an evolving national identity.

This exhibition was provided by Bank of America through its Art in our Communities program.

Organized by the Tampa Museum of Art in collaboration with the Bronx Museum of the Arts

Complicated Beauty was the Tampa Museum of Art’s first survey of contemporary Cuban art from the 1970s to the present. Inspired by the City of Tampa’s historical connections with Havana and the reopening of relations between the United States and Cuba, this exhibition highlighted several of Cuba’s most influential artists. With 40 works on view by over 25 artists, this exhibition was a cross-generational look at recent trends in Cuban art. Although the art in Complicated Beauty spans four decades, the artists address several similar themes related to Cuban identity and the island nation’s complex history. Many of the artists explore the effects of the Revolution, isolation, and barriers, yet celebrate the natural beauty and diversity of Cuba. Themes related to escape and water reappeared in many of the works on view.

Artists featured in Complicated Beauty included: Belkis Ayón, Abel Barroso, José Bedia, Tania Bruguera, Maria Martinez Cañas, Los Carpinteros, Yoan Capote, Humberto Díaz, Carlos Garaicoa, Lázaro Armando Saavedra Gonzalez, Maria Elena Gonzalez, Quisqueya Henriquez, KCHO, Glenda León, Reynier Leyva Novo, Ana Mendieta, Ibrahim Miranda, Pedro Pablo Oliva, Mabel Poblet, Eduardo Ponjuán, Wilfredo Prieto, Diana Fonseca Quiñones, Sandra Ramos, Esterio Segura, and José A. Toirac.

This exhibition proposed reframing American folk art through the concept of “self-taught genius,” as an elastic and enduring notion whose meaning has evolved over time. The exhibition curators selected more than 100 artworks from the permanent collection of the American Folk Art Museum (New York, NY), produced in a wide range of media from the eighteenth century until the present day. Each artwork belongs to one of seven primary themes by which the exhibition is organized: Achievers, Encoders, Messengers, Improvement, Reformers, Ingenuity, and Guides. The exhibition was accompanied by a beautifully illustrated catalogue, impressive website, and multiple educational resources.

Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum and its national tour are made possible by generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, as part of its 75th anniversary initiative. Tampa is the seventh and final stop on this tour.

To learn more about the objects featured in Self-Taught Genius, please view selftaughtgenius.org.

One of the world’s foremost living sculptors, Spanish artist Jaume Plensa (b. 1955) has created large-scale artworks related to the human figure for public places around the globe. This exhibition, the artist’s largest to date in the United States, features numerous indoor as well as outdoor installations, engaging viewers even before they enter the Museum. Interested not only in the visual arts but also in literature, psychology, biology, language, and history, Jaume Plensa creates sculptures and installations that unify individuals through connections of spirituality, the body, and collective memory. He uses a wide range of materials—including steel, cast iron, resin, light, sound, and more—to lend physical weight and volume to multiple components of the human condition and soul.

This exhibition was organized by Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art.

Presented by PNC Bank

Additional support from the Arts Council of Hillsborough County

This exhibition examined one of the most universal subjects in art, the portrayal of the human figure. From the universally recognizable to the intimate and introspective, Public and Private presented more than 100 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by many of the most important artists of the late 19th and 20th centuries, including Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Diego Rivera, Auguste Rodin, Paul Signac, Andy Warhol, and others. Juxtaposing their diverse approaches to a common subject reveals radical stylistic changes, as well as a broad spectrum of political, philosophical, and aesthetic meanings associated with the human form. Initially collected by Elizabeth and Alexander Kasser, the artworks of Public and Private now belong to the Kasser Mochary Art Foundation, a generous lender to museums worldwide.

This exhibition was organized by the Tucson Museum of Art and the Kasser Mochary Art Foundation.

Supported in part by the Frank E. Duckwall Foundation.

Christo is best known for the monumental projects he and his late wife and collaborator Jeanne-Claude accomplished over nearly four decades. These include the 24 1/2 mile-long Running Fence in California’s Sonoma and Marin Counties (1976), the Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin (1995), and the epic-scale crowd pleaser The Gates (2005), which comprised 7,053 fabric banners that spanned the walkways of New York’s Central Park.

XTO+J-C presented the artist’s important Wrapped Package (1960) alongside many drawings and collages related to his early wrapped objects—chairs, road signs, motorcycles, and other commonplace items that disrupt our relationship to the everyday through their concealment. The exhibition also included Christo’s large-scale Store Front (1965–66) and a related series of Show Windows from the early ‘70s, which signal an expansion of the artist’s sculptural practice to a new environmental realm.

Taken together, this exhibition featured more than fifty works by Christo, and also highlighted recent gifts from The David C. Copley Foundation and from the artist himself, in recognition of Copley’s patronage and support of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego over the years. The late David C. Copley (1952–2012) was the most prolific collector of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work in the United States.

XTO+J-C: Christo and Jeanne-Claude Featuring Works from the Bequest of David C. Copley was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Lead underwriting support was generously provided by Colette Carson Royston and Dr. Ivor Royston, with additional funding and works of art received from the David C. Copley Foundation. Additional underwriting support was received from the Friends of David C. Copley underwriting group.

ARS LONGA, VITA BREVIS – Art is long, life short.

Or, more broadly interpreted, “Art is eternal, its makers mortal”

Hippokrates of Kos, Aphorism 1 (ca. 400 BC).

From the rediscovery of ancient sites and artworks in the Renaissance until the present day, the world of classical antiquity lives on, continually fascinating and inspiring artists. Countless students of painting and sculpture have honed their crafts by studying and emulating ancient masterworks, while others have created wholly original artworks with clear reference—whether positive or negative—to the antique.

In this exhibition, drawn primarily from the permanent collection of the Tampa Museum of Art, visitors first encountered fascinating trompe l’oeils by Peter Saari, twentieth-century paintings made to look like ancient Roman wall and floor fragments. Maura Sheehan’s intentionally fragmented sculptures similarly challenged the viewer to consider the relationship between ancient and contemporary art. Other highlights included a range of responses to the familiar silhouettes and contours of Greek black-figure and red-figure pottery, from faithful nineteenth-century engravings to decidedly contemporary versions created by artists like James Rosenquist, Phillip Pearlstein, and Duncan McClellan. Similarly, stunning but relatively straightforward neoclassical works by C. Paul Jennewein and others stood in contrast to reimagined histories and mythologies created by Jim Dine, Nancy Graves, Stanley William Hayter, Pablo Picasso, and others.

From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) depicted the world with the volume turned up. Employing a seemingly endless palette, his work has challenged our perceptions of popular culture, politics, and consumerism for more than fifty years. Warhol was the central figure of American pop art, a movement that emerged in the late 1950s in reaction to the heroism of abstract expressionism. Warhol and his contemporaries sought to eradicate the notion of the “genius artist” and downplay the role of originality in art, adopting mechanical means of generating images such as screenprinting, which theoretically allowed for an endless reproduction of images. In drawing inspiration from the rapidly changing world around them, pop artists sought to be more inclusive in their subjects, and more aware of the day-to-day conditions of contemporary existence.

Spanning three decades of Warhol’s career, this exhibition featured some of the artist’s most iconic screenprints, including his portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Mao Zedong, the splashy camouflage series, and the controversial Electric Chair portfolio. Drawn exclusively from the rich collections of Jordan Schnitzer and his family foundation, In Living Color was divided into five sections—experimentation, emotion, experience, subversion, and attitude. In each, Warhol’s work was placed in conversation with that of other artists of the postwar era who use color as a tool to shape how we interpret and respond to images; these included Louise Bourgeois, Chuck Close, Keith Haring, and Frank Stella.

More than twenty years after his death, Andy Warhol remains one of the most influential figures in contemporary art and culture. Warhol’s life and work inspires creative thinkers worldwide thanks to his enduring imagery, his artfully cultivated celebrity, and the ongoing research of dedicated scholars. His impact as an artist is far deeper and greater than his one prescient observation that “everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” His omnivorous curiosity resulted in an enormous body of work that spanned every available medium and most importantly contributed to the collapse of boundaries between high and low culture.

Between the 1830s and the end of the First World War, American art came into its own. From the majestic Hudson River School paintings of Thomas Cole, John Kensett, and Albert Bierstadt to the gritty urban realism of Robert Henri and John Sloan, this presentation drew on the rich holdings of American paintings and sculptures in the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. This selection of more than 50 paintings and eight sculptures highlighted the maturation of a distinctly American idiom, one informed by international currents and engaged with capturing the fluxes of modern life. Masterpieces of landscape, genre, still-life, and portraiture, punctuated by a selection of sculptures, trace an evolution in style from an art driven by the mandates of westward expansion to one animated by experimentation. In both idealized and naturalistically rendered landscapes, in scenes of everyday life, or meticulously detailed images of everyday objects, the presentation also narrated an important chapter in American cultural history that witnessed the Civil War and its aftermath, the expansion of national boundaries and the closing of the western frontier, and the transformations wrought by the emergence of new technologies at the dawn of the 20th century.

This exhibition was organized by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Active throughout the early to mid-20th century, sculptor C. Paul Jennewein created works that ranged from intimate small-scale bronze sculptures to major architectural projects. Jennewein’s sculptures attracted much attention from both national and international audiences. Cast in bronze, his works adorn gardens and fountains and significant works of architecture throughout the country and abroad. His creations not only reveal the inspiration of the ancient world but also engage with the new sculptural styles appearing in Europe in the early decades of the last century.  The five works exhibited here were inspired by the supportive environment of the Academy and emphasized both the classical influences that permeated the region and the artist’s own developing interest in sculpture.

Featuring more than 20 paintings and works on paper from the Museum’s permanent collection, Picturing Land and Sea explored how artists perceive and portray the natural world. From romantic depictions of the American wilderness to colorful, geometric renderings of the French countryside, this exhibition highlighted key stylistic movements from the past 150 years. Including work by Abraham Walkowitz, Adolf Gottlieb, Elaine de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, and others, Picturing Land and Sea explored the diverse interpretations of these overlapping sources of inspiration. Many of the works exhibited here were celebratory, others more reactionary; while some depict land and sea in straightforward ways, others seek to capture a momentary feeling. Taken together, they invite us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world.

One of the most popular American artists of the past century, Norman Rockwell (1894–1978) was a keen observer of human nature and a gifted storyteller. For nearly seven decades, while history was in the making all around him, Rockwell chronicled our changing society in the small details and nuanced scenes of ordinary people in everyday life, providing a personalized interpretation—albeit often an idealized one—of American identity. His depictions offered a reassuring visual haven during a time of momentous transformation as our country evolved into a complex, modern society. Rockwell’s contributions to our visual legacy, many of them now icons of American culture, have found a permanent place in our national psyche.

The admission for this exhibition (which opened March 7th, 2015) was:

• Adults: $15
• Seniors, Florida Educators & Active Military (plus guest): $7.50
• Students: $5
• Children 6 and Under: Free

Few places continue to enthrall us like Paris and the rich legacy of the artists who made the “City of Light” their home. Together, these artists, including the well-known leaders of French impressionism—Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley—came to define 19th-century Parisian modernity, bringing to life the cafés, city streets, and brightly lit seaside resorts of the French capital and its environs. Renoir to Chagall: Paris and the Allure of Color showcased 55 masterpieces from the renowned collection of the Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

Organized by the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis.

The realm of Poseidon encompassed virtually every aspect of the ancient Mediterranean world, from mythology and cult to daily activities. Each of these domains was explored in the first major display of classical antiquities held in the Tampa Museum of Art’s new building.

With significant pieces from our own collection and museums across the world, including the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the National Archaeological Museum of Florence, among many others, this offered a glimpse into the power and timeless beauty of marine life and the ancient art it inspired.

On View:

Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska

Tampa Museum of Art

In the News:

Art Daily, February 10, 2014

The first U.S. exhibition to focus solely on the new post-Mao generation of Chinese artists offered a look at how China’s mega-development has impacted its youth culture and spawned new art trends. At times exuberant and at other times ruminating, this exhibition of 27 emerging artists from mainland China provided a cultural exchange and a dialogue about the Chinese artist’s place in a globalized art world.

This was co-presented in two venues simultaneously through a unique collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg.

This exhibition was on view at the following venues for these dates:

• Tampa Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg
• Oklahoma City Museum of Art
• Orange County Museum of Art (Newport Beach, CA)

See below for press on the show and/or artists included in the show. To receive the My Generation: Young Chinese Artists press kit, please contact Nancy Seijas-Kipnis.

Tampa Bay Times, June 8, 2013

Tampa Bay Times, August, 9, 2013

China Daily, September 3, 2013

Tampa Bay Times, October 25, 2013

83 Degrees Media, November 12, 2013

New York Times, November 23, 2013

Graphicstudio, a renowned print workshop located on the campus of the University of South Florida in our hometown, has hosted some of the most important artists of the 20th century, creating technical and conceptual breakthroughs in the world of contemporary art. In the most significant and far-reaching collaboration between the Museum and the University of South Florida, over 100 works by 45 artists filled the Museum walls and highlighted the important connection between Tampa and the international arts world. Graphicstudio: Uncommon Practice at USF was the most ambitious and comprehensive show to feature works from the workshop since the survey exhibition of the early years of Graphicstudio at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. in 1991.

Graphicstudio: Uncommon Practice at USF chronicled several aesthetic and technical conversations among artists of different generations. Highlighting both technical and conceptual breakthroughs, the exhibition included seminal works spanning Graphicstudio’s forty-six year history (by Robert Rauschenberg, Jim Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha, Allan McCollum, Louise Bourgeois, Jim Dine, and others) with some of its most recent collaborative endeavors (by Christian Marclay, Mark Dion, Teresita Fernández, Los Carpinteros, and Trenton Doyle Hancock).

A catalogue to commemorate the exhibition and the partnership was published by D. Giles, Ltd of London, England and available for purchase in the Guilders and Florida Communications Group Museum store.

Graphicstudio: Uncommon Practice at USF was curated by Jade Dellinger and co-organized by USF Contemporary Art Museum and the Tampa Museum of Art. The project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Graphicstudio is presented with additional support from:

• Stanton Storer
• Embrace the Arts Foundation
• Tready and Thayer Smith
• 
• ARTE Tampa Bay

Media Sponsor:

Featuring a comprehensive array of fifty-two works across varied media by Jean (Hans) Arp (French, born Germany, 1886–1966), Joan Miró (Spanish, 1893–1983), and Alexander Calder (American, 1898–1976), this exhibition highlighted the work of three modern masters, who pushed color, line, and form beyond convention. Arp, Miró, and Calder converged early in their artistic careers. Calder, who left New York for France in 1926, first encountered Arp and Miró in Paris, an inspirational destination for artists and a vibrant center of music and dance. Paris was also the creative center for Surrealism—an art movement stressing the subconscious significance of imagery—and Surrealist theory in the visual arts, politics, and society. Calder, though not closely associated with Surrealism, was undoubtedly influenced by the movement’s key players during his time in Paris. It was Arp, in fact, who named Calder’s static constructions “stabiles,” and, in 1931, the Surrealist Marcel Duchamp suggested Calder call his whimsical, kinetic works “mobiles.” But Calder developed the closest friendship with Miró; the two bonded over discussions about Surrealist theory, and through shared interests and influences. These relationships, formed during a period in art history often referred to as “the greatest laboratory of modern art,” resulted in some of the most innovative visual iconographies of the twentieth century.

This exhibition was initiated by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, and organized by Albright-Knox Curator for the Collection Holly E. Hughes.

Presented by Kimmins Contracting Corporation with media support from Tampa Bay Times.

Often beautiful in form and adorned with strikingly attractive images, artifacts of the ancient Mediterranean world can be classified in countless different ways. As stunning examples of artwork, antiquities often reside in museums of art. Many examples, however, would be equally at home in museums of archaeology, history, or even design.

Although Greek and Roman art in many ways laid the foundation for the modern and contemporary work shown in surrounding galleries, very few true artistic masterpieces survive from antiquity. For while ancient authors tell of the wondrous paintings of Zeuxis and Apelles, for example, and the epoch-making sculptures of Polykleitos and Lysippos, in most cases we now have little more than artistic echoes and copies to accompany these descriptions.

Ancient painted pottery, by contrast, survives in great numbers, but — despite its beauty — receives almost no mention from Greek or Roman authors, who clearly considered ceramics the domain of humble craftsmen rather than of fine artists. If its partially utilitarian nature somehow detracted from its artistic value in ancient eyes, however, ceramics were not alone in this regard; their value as vessels could replicate similarly functional forms in a range of different materials — from modest leather or woven fibers to glass, stone, or extremely costly precious metals. While many ancient statues and figurines remain much celebrated for their aesthetic value, on the other hand, their functions should not be ignored, whether votive, commemorative, or otherwise.

Aesthetics and utility can rarely be kept wholly separate, and these two aspects of a given ancient object deserve careful consideration. In this exhibition, drawn primarily from the Museum’s permanent collection, objects have been grouped together according to certain common features — from images, aesthetics, and individual style to form, utility, and technical details. In each case, the visitor is invited to ask questions: whether aesthetics or utility takes precedence; or whether a given object should be labeled art or craft, its maker artist or artisan.

Teacher Resources

To See as Artists See: American Art from The Phillips Collection, organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., made its final stop at the Tampa Museum of Art after international stops in Madrid, Tokyo and Rovereto, Italy, and most recently in Nashville and Fort Worth. The exhibition returned home to The Phillips Collection for a special presentation in 2014.

Presented By

To See as Artists See: American Art from The Phillips Collection is presented in Tampa by:

Additional support for To See as Artists See: American Art from The Phillips Collection has been provided by the Frankle Family Foundation and these organizations:

The following individuals and organizations have assisted bringing this exhibition to Tampa by participating in our “Sponsor a Masterpiece” campaign:

Allison and Robby Adams, Arts Council of Hillsborough County, Suzette and Monroe Berkman, The Board of Trustees of the Tampa Museum of Art, Pat and Calvin Carter, Janis Guzzle Chapman, Maureen and Doug Cohn, Cornelia and Dick Corbett, Nancy and Harry de Waart, Tweed and Rick Eckhard, Margo and Hilliard Eure, Celia and Jim Ferman, The Frank E. Duckwall Foundation, William Stamps Farish Fund, The Friends of the Tampa Museum of Art, Mimi and Bob Graham, Grand Events, Frances Heller, Debbie and Peter Hepner, The Ifert Family, Susan and Robert Isbell, R. Duane Johnson, Helen Kerr, Allison and Tom Luzier, Debra Williams McDaniel and Gary McDaniel, Carol and Frank Morsani, Dean Hamric and Burton Mulford, Mary and Richard Perry, Pride and Passion 2012, Demi Rahall, Angie and Dan Rodriguez, Sharmila  and Vivek Seth, Robin Sharp, Todd Smith and Ben Hood, Ellen and Don Stichter, Sarah and Scott Stichter, Fell and Barbara Stubbs, Lavinia and Tom Touchton, Tucker/Hall, Cynthia (Al) and John Van Voris, Jean and Roger Vaughn, Penny and Jeff Vinik, Laura and Ed Waller, Pamela Wysocki, Debbie and Randy Zomermaand.