A Collector
Iwas thinking about this quote as I was researching and writing the story about the Vida Americana exhibition that recently opened at the Whitney Museum. what struck me about the quote, and the exhibition for that matter, is how artists are drawn to each other, create movements, create meaning and open us up to truths—some universal and some much more subtle.
The beauty of Vida Americana is it shows us how there are still truths being discovered about the assumed narratives that, woven together, create the history of art in this country.two hundred years is not a long time, to be sure, but within such a short period, there have been so many strands that have come together to give us a fuller picture about how art was created in this country.and not just how art was created but how artists lived—the lives of these artists—what moved them, what inspired them, what they saw, what they read, what motivated them enough to want to move across the country or even the world to continue creating their works.
Vida Americana documents the back and forth between the artists and people of this country and Mexico between the years 1925 to 1945. It is an exhibition over a decade in the making.we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed learning about it and offering it in this issue.and thanks, of course, to The American Art Fair and Catherine Sweeney Singer who recognized the importance of this exhibition this past fall and made room for curator Barbara Haskell to lecture about it during the fair. Once again, dealers and museums working together, supporting the same cause, attempting to create moments to educate collectors about this wonderful and fascinating history of American art that we all love and share.
P.S. Remember, we have just revamped our website and now the entire magazine is available on www.americanfineartmagazine.com.we also produce a PDF that can be downloaded to your desktop. Subscribe today to the print edition and receive all digital offerings for free!
“Art is at least in part a way of collecting information about the universe. ” — Rebecca West