Masterpieces from the Currier Museum of Art on Loan

Written by Jerome Washbourn Sunday, 05 February 2012 21:22

MANCHESTER, NH – While the Currier Museum is under construction and the galleries are closed, art lovers still have the opportunity to enjoy many works from the museum’s collections.  A number of important paintings have been loaned to the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) in Portland, Maine and several masterpieces from the collection are currently on view at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.

“While the doors are closed for construction, we are pleased that significant portions of the Currier’s collections will still be available for enjoyment in the region,” said Susan Strickler, Currier director.  “Having some of the Currier’s masterpieces in other museums allows viewers to enjoy the works in a new environment and perhaps see them in a new light.  We are also pleased to introduce the Currier’s rich holdings of European and American art to new audiences.”

The PMA has borrowed more than a dozen paintings, including works by Childe Hassam, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso and Charles Sheeler.  These objects will be on view beginning November 10 and will be integrated into the PMA’s permanent collection and noted with a description and the Currier Museum logo for viewers to easily spot them.

The PMA’s galleries will be transformed by these important loans.  With the Currier’s strength in American impressionism, the fresh colors, expressive handling, and poetic compositions of Frank Weston Benson, Childe Hassam, and Edmund Tarbell will enhance the PMA’s own offerings.  Of particular note is Hassam’s poetic The Goldfish Window (1916), part of a series of “window pictures” that beautifully demonstrate American impressionists’ love of light and fondness for Japanese-inspired design.  Picasso’s Woman Seated in a Chair (1941) will be the centerpiece in a group of works celebrating late Cubism, and Claude Monet’s The Seine at Bougival (1869), after being featured in the PMA’s major summer exhibition, Paris and the Countryside, will have a prominent place in the gallery dedicated to French Impressionism and the Barbizon School.

The Hood curators will rotate Currier paintings in and out of their permanent collection galleries throughout the upcoming academic year.  They currently have a small exhibition of Dutch still life that includes an essay by Arthur Wheelock of the National Gallery of Art, along with the Currier’s painting by Balthasar van der Ast, Still Life of Fruit on a Kraak Porcelain Dish (1617).  In the summer of 2007 all the loaned works will be on view in an exhibition tentatively titled Selected Treasures from the Currier Museum of Art.  Check the Currier’s website for specific dates and details as they become available. Admission is always free at the Hood Museum of Art.

About the Currier Museum of Art
The Currier Museum is temporarily closed for expansion.  During this time, public programming continues at Currier Downtown at 52 Hanover Street in Manchester and across the state with Currier on the Move.  The associated Currier Art Center continues to run its wide range of art classes and programs for children and adults, and the museum’s Zimmerman House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, continues its tour schedule uninterrupted.  For more information visit www.currier.org