American Beauty
Published 9:43 pm Saturday, January 10, 2009
It’s seeing Edward Hopper in a different light. The hard-edged urban realist had a softer side when he had a palette of watercolors at hand. Then there is the more familiar Childe Hassam flag painting, as valid an impressionistic endeavor as anything by Monet.
These are just two of the hundreds of paintings that make up the Daywood Collection, one of the prized acquisitions of the Huntington Museum of Art.
Starting Friday, Jan. 17, the museum will present portions of the Daywood exhibit that show the creativity and technique of the American artist.
Between 1920 and 1965 Ruth Woods and Arthur Spencer Dayton put together their collection as a labor of love. Much of the collection is made up of landscapes that show a variety of schools from realism to American impressionism.
“Buying American art when it was somewhat “out-of-fashion” gave the Daytons an advantage over other collectors buying works by the same artists just 30 years later,” writes Jenine Culligan, HMA curator, in the museum’s magazine. “They bought from American art dealers, especially Macbeth Gallerey in New York City, and from prestigious exhibitions such as the Carnegie International. They also purchased many works directly from the studios of artists they admired.”
Made possible in part by a grant from the WVCA American Masterpieces program and assistance from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, the exhibit runs through Feb. 22.
The Huntington Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $5 per person or $18 for a family of four or more. Admission is free on Tuesdays. For more information call HMA on (304) 529-2701.