DELAWARE ART MUSEUM PRESENTS 'PRECIOUS SPACES'

Friday, 03 November 2006 19:28

Wilmington, DE - The Delaware Art Museum presents Precious Spaces: The Artist’s Studio in Miniature, a display of nearly a dozen miniatures that recreate the studios of famous artists on view through January 7, 2007.  Skilled miniaturists from the surrounding region were invited to produce these picturesque environments in detailed, three-dimensional dioramas on a scale where one inch equals one foot.  The Museum plans to make Precious Spaces the first in a new annual tradition of displaying miniatures during the holiday season.

Visitors will be able to peek into the picturesque workspaces of numerous artists including Johannes Vermeer, Howard Pyle, and N. C. Wyeth.  They will also be able to vote for their favorite miniature.

The miniaturists who contributed works to Precious Spaces make use of an old and international art form that includes ancient Egyptian funerary objects, African figurines, and European luxury objects like thumb-sized books and miniature portraits.  After reading Tracy Chevalier’s novel Girl with a Pearl Earring, Cheryl Miller constructed the studio of Johannes Vermeer to show the exact moment when Vermeer added the pearl earring to the painting. At the age of 15, Jordanna Wagner is the youngest miniaturist featured in Precious Spaces, and she visited Howard Pyle’s Franklin Street studio in preparation for crafting Pyle’s workspace at a small scale.  A full list of the miniaturists and the artists whose studios were recreated appears below.

This program is made possible, in part, by the First State Miniature Club and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency committed to promoting and supporting the arts in Delaware.

Nancy Grube: Studio of Deborah Butterfield
Peter Kendall: Itinerant artist John Brewster, Jr., working in Pierce-Nichols House parlor
Marnie King: Studio of Alphonse Mucha
Marnie King & Rose Gambacorta: Studio of Maxfield Parrish
Marnie King and Wanda Simons: Studio of Georgia O’Keeffe
Ben and Jayne McCormick: Studio of N. C. Wyeth
Cheryl J. Miller: Studio of Johannes Vermeer
Susan Ross & Bonnie Kincaid: Studio of Ruby the Painting Elephant
Wanda Simons: Studio of Louis Comfort Tiffany
Jordanna Wagner: Studio of Howard Pyle

Founded in 1912, the Delaware Art Museum holds a world-renowned collection that focuses on American art and illustration from the 19th to the 21st century as well as the British pre-Raphaelite movement of the mid-19th century.  The Museum offers an outdoor Sculpture Park, the Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, studio art classes, the interactive Kids’ Corner learning area.  Visit : www.delart.org