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The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is committed to engage and inspire through the arts, gardens and education. A permanent collection of nearly 5,000 works of art on a riverfront campus offers more than 95,000 annual visitors a truly unique experience on the First Coast. Nationally recognized education programs serve adults and children of all abilities.

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The Art of Being Female: Works by the Women of Vision

by , Marketing Manager in Education

Oct

14

Photo by Ingrid Domiani

For the past fourteen years, a group of women has made the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens their monthly venue as a reprieve through the communicative power and beauty of the visual and literary arts.

During visits to the Museum, the women learn about art history, create art using paint, clay and collage, and explore the gardens and galleries.  They also write expressive poetry and record their memoirs.

What makes these women exceptional and extraordinary is that each experiences low vision or blindness.  This artful program serves as a vehicle for personal reflections and the development of awareness for all.

The Cummer celebrates the creativity of this special group with an annual exhibition representing Art Beyond Sight month that serves as a symbol for the transformative nature of art, both for the creator and for the viewer.  The Women of Vision continue to engage and inspire the community through accessibility as the program is observed as a national model.

This exhibition represents the strength, beauty and influence of women, realized through diversity and life’s hardships and triumphs alike.

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New Cummer Board Members

by , Marketing Manager in Behind the Scenes

Oct

13

At the Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, September 15, 2011, Ryan A. Schwartz was elected and welcomed for a five year term.  Schwartz is senior vice president of Zurich Insurance Services and US Assure.  He serves as a director of The Community Foundation, vice chairman of the Nonprofit Center of NE Florida, as a director and treasurer of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Jacksonville, and chairs the Public Relations Committee for THE PLAYERS.  Schwartz participated in The Community Foundation’s Philanthropic Initiative program and Leadership Jacksonville, and is a recipient of the Jacksonville Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” award.  He is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.  Director Hope McMath said, “Ryan Schwartz brings a fresh and knowledgeable vitality to the board of trustees.”

Stephanie Welchans is also new to the Board of Trustees, serving  in ex-officio status for a one year term due to her leadership as President of The Cummer Docent Corps.

Stephanie Welchans is the new 2011-2012 Docent President.  Stephanie, a Miami University graduate, is currently VP of the marketing research firm, Welchans Research Group.  She has also worked as Regional Sales Manager at the Kohler Company.  In addition to leading The Cummer Docent Corps, Stephanie will volunteer with the Junior Docent program for middle and high school students. She currently resides in Avondale with her husband and daughter.

The trustees welcomed both Ryan and Stephanie with hearty applause.

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Wordless Wednesday – Art Beyond Sight

by , Marketing Manager in Community

Oct

12

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#10 Jacques De Claeuw – Vanitas

by , in Art

Oct

11

#10 Jacques De Claeuw (Dutch, active 1642-1676) Vanitas, 1677, oil on canvas, 44 3/8 x 57 3/8 in., Museum Purchase with Gift from Eunice Pitt Odom Semmes, AP.1962.3.1.

Jacques Grief was born in Dordrecht, a small river town in northern Holland. Because of a physical deformity, he was given the nickname of “de Claeuw” meaning “the claw.” The artist, a brother-in-law of the painter Jan Steen, was known for his still life images. Popularized as an independent genre by Dutch artists of the period, still life appealed to the taste of Calvinist patrons who objected to overtly religious art.

The term vanitas (Latin for “emptiness”) is applied to still life images featuring objects that represent the brevity of life or the emptiness of worldly concerns. De Claeuw’s contemporary public was familiar with such symbolism and would have recognized the partially covered celestial globe as an attribute of astronomy. The globe, along with a copy of the Amsterdam Waersegger Almanach (1677), a soothsayer’s almanac, refers to man’s inability to accurately predict the future. The musical instruments, inkwell, sealing wax, and cards refer to the vanity of worldly amusements. The hourglass and the smoke associated with the pipe and candle denote the passage of time. The flies and flowers are symbolic of decay and the shortness of life. The image of Venus refers to the impermanence of physical beauty. The small portrait of the prominent engraver Pieter de Jode (1604-1674) is a reference to the immortality an artist attempts to gain through art.

“There is so much meaning in the painting.  Every time you look at it you see something different that makes you think.” – anonymous

 

 

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Happy 273rd Birthday Benjamin West!

by , in Education

Oct

10

By Kathleen Storey, Marketing Intern

Benjamin West (American, 1738 - 1820), The Honorable Mrs. Shute Barrington, 1808, oil on canvas, 50 1/8 x 40 3/16 in., Museum Purchase, AP.1960.2.1.

Benjamin West (American, 1738 - 1820), Angels appearing to the Shepherds, c. 1790, oil on canvas, 25 ½ x 20 ¼ in., Purchased with funds from the Morton R. Hirschberg Bequest and a gift from Diane DeMell Jacobsen, Ph.D., in loving memory of her husband, Thomas H. Jacobsen, AP.2006.11.1. Photograph courtesy of Brian Shrum.

Benjamin West was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around the time of the American Revolution. Not only was he an extremely gifted painter, he was also the second president of the Royal Academy of Arts in London serving from 1792 to 1820. Born on October 10, 1738 in Springfield, PA, West learned about paint at a young age. When he was a very young child, Native Americans showed him how to mix paint with clay from the river bank and bear grease. From there, he became sufficiently self-taught.

During the years of 1746 to 1759, West worked in Pennsylvania painting portraits. In 1756, a friend of West encouraged him to paint the “Death of Socrates,” based off an engraving in Charles Rollins’ Ancient History. The finished product, which is vastly different from his other works, has been praised as “the most ambitious and interesting painting produced in colonial America.”

In 17563, West moved west to England. Here, he was commissioned by King George III to create portraits of the royal family. In 1770, he painted what is considered his most famous piece, The Death of General Wolfe, which later became one of the most reproduced images of the period.

Along with Sir Joshua Reynolds, West founded the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. Reynolds was the first president, while West became the second president in 1792. In 1806 he was re-elected president and served until his death in 1820.

West spent the remainder of his life in London. During this time, King George appointed him historical painter to the court, he was Surveyor of the King’s Pictures, and many famous American artists studied under him, including Rembrandt Peale, Thomas Sully and John Trumbull.

Benjamin West is a great American painter. Known for his wonderfully colorful and expressive representations of thrilling moments in history, West’s work has a way of bringing his art to life in a way that makes the viewer easily identify with the scene at hand.

 

 

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Eugene Savage Collection Now on View

by , Director of Art Education in Art

Oct

07

Title Wall to Exhibition

Title Wall to Exhibition

As part of the Museum’s 50th Anniversary celebration, the exhibition Eugene Savage: The Seminole Paintings is being displayed publicly for the first time since the 1960s.  The exhibition, on view October 7, 2011 through January 8, 2012, features 42 paintings and watercolors inspired by Savage’s trips to the Everglades.  The Cummer purchased the collection in 2007, after former trustee Samuel Vickers introduced Savage’s work to the Museum.  Savage’s series is the most extensive painted record of the Florida Seminoles from the early twentieth century.

Photograph of the Exhibition

Photograph of the Exhibition

In his work, Savage found a new way to express himself. He found a way to depict native culture as well as critique modern urban life. The natural rhythms of the Everglades are portrayed, which presents a vision of Seminole life. While certainly not documentary in nature, Savage’s abstracted compositions evoke mystery and imagination. Our hope is to have visitors be enthralled by the work of Eugene Savage, and his magical recollections of the Seminoles and the Florida Everglades.

Photograph of the Exhibition

Photograph of the Exhibition

Visitors can learn more about Savage and his work in the book, Eugene Savage: The Seminole Paintings written by guest curator Dr. Elizabeth B. Heuer, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of North Florida.  The book is available at The Cummer Store for $12.95 and is published by The Cummer in association with D Giles Limited, London. In addition to the book, there will be a family guide offered for the exhibition. A podcast will also be available to listen to in the galleries, which features a Seminole Tribal member telling traditional tales of animals of the Everglades.

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