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Doing Business In Connecticut 2017

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78 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2017 Tourism, Arts & Culture INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT › not an American movement. It came from France, where American-born artist Mary Cassatt spent most of her life and devel- oped a friendship with one of its founders, Edgar Degas. "She depicts women in home settings and interactions between mother and child," Mare said. One of her finest pieces, a pastel on paper entitled "A Caress" hangs in the museum. e museum also hosts the works of the eight original artists of the Ashcan School, who reflected a more down-to-earth view of America than the somewhat bucolic Impressionists, Mare explained. ese artists depicted scenes of everyday urban life in New York City's poorer areas. Hot subjects in the early 1900s included the stories of immigrants to the country, child labor laws and women's suffrage. e works of Robert Henri, William Glackens, Gifford Beal, and others use a more spontaneous style to grasp less-savory scenes. "I feel like everybody who stands in front of a work places their own association to it," said Mare. e closer one comes to the abstract influences on American art, the more evident that becomes. Possibly the smallest piece in the collec- tion is a Jackson Pollock oil on tin entitled "TP's Boat in Menemsha Pond." Painted before Pollock became famous, like so many artworks in the museum's collection, it evokes a story. "Jackson Pollock was omas Hart Benton's student, and they spent a lot of time together and had something of a family rela- tionship," Mare explained. Pollock did the painting for TP, Benton's young son, and years later in 1973 TP donated it to the museum. Art acquisition As the gallery flows, one comes upon e Arts of Life in America mural, a combination of smaller murals by omas Hart Benton, and a continuation of the story. "e way we acquired these," said Mare, "is entertaining." e museum's original director, Sanford B.D. Lowe, ended up being a great friend of the artist. But the paintings in the mural were done at the height of the Great Depression, she said, for the Whitney Mu- seum in New York City, and hung there until Benton — who had once been considered the best living American artist — was "coming out of style." e story goes that Whitney decided to sell them, and Lowe pounced on the oppor- tunity, going there to pick them up in person. He and a handful of men had to take out a skylight and hire a crane to get the murals out of the Whitney. But it was well worth it. "He got these and other works for $500," Mare said. ey depict everyday scenes of people playing cards, wrangling horses, and performing in dance clubs. Just as American life changes and grows, so do the exhibits at the museum. Among other things, Williams, the curatorial assistant to the director, works with the visiting collec- tions that breathe excitement into the venue. One of her favorites was the recent bilingual exhibition Vistas del Sur, the largest- ever staged there, containing 250 pieces. One whole room was filled with sketches, photos, paintings and observations made by art- ist Jean Chaffanjon when he accompanied explorer Auguste Morisot on an expedi- tion to find the source of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. "We wanted to place greater awareness of Latin American heritage and culture," said Williams. "It was a good tie to our Hudson River School Collection, because a number of artists in the show are also in our permanent collection." is was the first exhibit overseen by current Director Min Jung Kim, who has announced her intention to expand the museum's focus by bringing in more special exhibitions. She points out that many of our most notable American artists were immi- grants, and that she would like to show their descendants some of the artwork that reflects of their places of origin. ❑ > Continued from page 76 PHOTO/NBMAA The New Britain Museum of American Art offers something for every type of art lover, including classic paintings like the painting above, "West Rock, New Haven" by Frederick Edwin Church.

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