KNOW/NOW: CONTEMPORARY INTERROGATIONS

For the purpose of these interrogations, the Museum has developed a series of questions for exhibiting contemporary artists in an attempt to enliven and explore the discourse between the artist and the institution – with specific focus on site, interpretation, relevance, process, and sources. Marc Swanson, whose NEW/NOW exhibition (on view until this Sunday, May [...]

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Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Appropriation & Inspiration at the NBMAA

This post comes to us from Alexandra Torbick, Curatorial Intern. Appropriation, the act of direct duplication, copying or incorporation of an image (painting, photograph, etc) by another artist[1], has been endogenous within the art world since antiquity, especially in the times of the Roman Empire. Using Greek bronze sculptures as their guide, the Romans took [...]

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Currier & Ives – When Does “Commercial” Art Become “Fine” Art?

This post comes to us from Jan Czepiel, curatorial volunteer at the NBMAA. It was around the holidays that I first heard of Currier & Ives prints. Introduced in 1936, calendars with Currier & Ives reproductions were part of the Travelers market branding efforts. As an employee of the Travelers Insurance Company – before all [...]

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Media History Through the Eyes of a Blue Boar

The New Britain Museum of American Art is pleased to feature the newest addition to the New Media series, Blue Boar, 2010 by Victoria Bradbury. This interactive, mixed-media installation brings the viewer into the midst of a witch trial – the so-called “blue boar incident.” In 1692, 75-year-old Mary Bradbury, the artist’s 10th great-grandmother and [...]

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Carson Fox: “Bi-Polar” Looks Beyond Fire, Flames, and Ice

“I am interested in beauty but I mistrust it. Instead, I look for beauty that exists in tension with the material or circumstances that invent it”. This has become one of the mantras of Carson Fox, the Brooklyn-based artists whose artwork is the newest installment in the NEW/NOW exhibition series for emerging contemporary artists. The [...]

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Seeing and Thinking Outside the Box

The New Britain Museum of American Art is pleased to host the exhibition of sculptural paintings by the artist Arthur L. Carter on view from September 30th to November 27th in the Davis Gallery. The title of the show, Orthogonals, refers to the property in mathematics – orthogonality – in which two vectors are perpendicular. A wonderful [...]

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The Art of Interaction

Many people are not receptive to contemporary art, deeming it too cold, somewhat elitist, and rather inaccessible. In some ways, the conceptual nature of a sizable fraction of contemporary art does not bode well in a society that is used to instant gratification. We live in a world where a meal can take less than [...]

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The Art and Function of Carved Birds

The newest exhibition opening at the New Britain Museum of American Art features a private collection of a truly American art form. One Man’s Passion: The Art of Carved Birds will be open to the public on August 5 through September 25 with the opening reception scheduled for Thursday, August 11 from 5:30-7PM. This collection, [...]

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Interactive Resources for the Provincetown Fan

Over the past two years, in preparation for the exhibition The Tides of Provincetown: Pivotal Years in America’s Oldest Continuous Art Colony 1899-2011 now on view at the New Britain Museum of American Art, we have compiled a list of online interactives and research materials that are both entertaining and educational. The games, videos, and [...]

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Teaching Genius: Hans Hofmann and the Provincetown Art Colony

While the idea that originality can be taught is somewhat oxymoronic, there is no denying that some of the most ground-breaking artists in history were students, at one time or another, influenced by the teachings of masters and their work. Provincetown artists were no exception, and if you had to trace the roots of Provincetown’s [...]

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