The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts celebrates its 200th anniversary in 2005 with a yearlong series of exhibitions, events, family activities and more. The Pennsylvania Academy, established by artist Charles Willson Peale, is the oldest art school and museum of fine arts in the nation.
On January 11, the academy’s new Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building opens to the public with “In Full View: American Painting and Sculpture (1720-2005)” and “The Chemistry of Color: The Harold A. and Ann R. Sorgenti Collection of Contemporary African American Art.” These exhibitions reveal the academy’s impressive collection of American art, set in new contemporary spaces of the Hamilton Building and in the Victorian Gothic architecture of the historic landmark building.
The 200th anniversary celebration begins with an elaborate gala on January 8. Throughout the month, special programs in the galleries, classes in new studios on the upper floors and trunk shows in the new street-level shop fronting on Broad Street will showcase the campus at the intersection of Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts and “museum mile.”
Exhibitions during the 200th anniversary celebration include in addition to the two mentioned above:
“Point of Sight: Thomas Eakins’ Drawing Manual Reconstructed.” Through his years as an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy, Eakins compiled his lectures and illustrations into a manuscript for a drawing instruction manual, which was never published during his lifetime. “Point of Sight” reveals these original illustrations more than 100 years later.
The 104th Annual Student Exhibition and 13th Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition, conducted for the first time in the contemporary spaces of the Hamilton Building, is an expansive showing of more than 1,000 paintings, sculptures, prints and works on paper by advanced and award-winning students – the future of American art.
“Light, Line and Color: American Works on Paper (1763-2003)” reveals hundreds of delicate masterworks from the academy’s collection of more than 12,000 works on paper – rarely permitted to see the light of day by influential artists, such as John Singleton Copley, John Audubon, Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, Andrew Wyeth, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol and more.
“In Private Hands: 200 Years of American Painting” is a major exhibition drawn from private collections across the nation.
In “Ellen Harvey: Mirror,” Brooklyn artist Harvey uses video projections, faux-finishing techniques and mirrors hung salon style in a site-specific installation addressing the building’s High Victorian Gothic architecture, aspects of works in the collection and the pedagogical tradition of copying art.
A full list of anniversary events is available at pafa.org/2000calendar.jsp.
