Collection Focus Exhibitions

A black and white print, a bronze sculpture on a wood base, and a portrait with a crackled surface.

Image credits: 1. (Detail) Elizabeth Catlett, These Two Generations, 1987, Lithograph on paper. Collection of the Springfield Art Museum. 2. Glenna Goodacre, Alo'Wanpi Ceremony, 1978, Bronze with patina. Gift of Gertrude Vanderveer Spratlen. Collection of the Springfield Art Museum. 3. (Detail) Bradi Barth, Good Luck, Undated, Tempera painting. Gift of Gertrude Vanderveer Spratlen. Collection of the Springfield Art Museum.  

The Museum's permanent collection is made up of over 10,000 individual objects. This larger permanent collection is built from smaller special collections like contemporary American watermedia paintings, prints, decorative arts and furniture, photography, textiles, cultural artifacts, and sculpture, among others. Collection focus exhibitions aim to create a deeper understanding and connection with select artists, artistic media, genres, or art periods. 

Collection Focus: Lithography

Exhibit Details

December 2, 2023 - April 7, 2024
Armstrong Gallery

Printmaking comprises the largest media in the Museum’s permanent collection (approximately 30%). It was made a collection focus by the Museum’s first full-time paid director, Winslow Ames, in 1947, as a way to more affordably collect examples of work by European Old Masters. Every subsequent director has continued to support this endeavor, expanding to contemporary printmaking and beyond, resulting in a rich and varied collection. This exhibition focuses on the medium of lithography through a cross-section of work, including a wide range of artists, styles, eras, and nationalities.  

Collection Focus: Lithography is organized by Curator of Art Sarah Buhr.

Exhibit Resources

FREE Take-Home Project Bag: Printing Portraits

Looking for a fun art project to do at home? Learn about lithography and create your very own print inspired by a portrait by Henri Matisse on view in Collection Focus: Lithography. Register for your free project bag and then pick it up in the Museum's Lobby during our normal hours of operation. Don't forget to share your work in progress or completed project with us on social media using the hashtag #sgfprojectbag

Related Programs

TBA

Collection Focus: Glenna Goodacre

Exhibit Details

December 2, 2023 - September 1, 2024
Spratlen Gallery

Glenna Goodacre (1939-2020) was one of just a few women who created large, commemorative sculptures in the United States in the later 20th century. She is perhaps most remembered for her Vietnam Women’s Memorial, dedicated to the 11,500 women who served in Vietnam as nurses, intelligence analysts, air traffic controllers, and other roles. It was unveiled on Veteran’s Day in 1993 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., a short distance from Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial. She is also widely recognized for the design of the United States millennium dollar coin with the image of Sacagawea and her infant son, Jean Baptiste. 

After first working as a painter, Goodacre moved to Boulder, Colorado, where she began casting small bronze pieces at a foundry in Loveland. She soon transitioned full-time to sculpture. She moved into large-scale work as her studio grew and began to focus extensively on work highlighting several Indigenous communities living in the pueblos of Arizona and New Mexico. This focus exhibition features 11 paintings and sculptures by Goodacre.

Collection Focus: Glenna Goodacre is organized by Curator of Art Sarah Buhr.

Exhibit Resources

TBA

Related Programs

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Collection Focus: Bradi Barth

December 2, 2023 - September 1, 2024
Spratlen Gallery

Bradi Barth (1922-2007) was a Swiss-born artist who created enigmatic and expressively realistic paintings in the technical tradition of 15th century Dutch masters, like Rogier Van der Weyden and Jan Van Eyck. She worked in craquelure, creating texture through a complicated layering of glazes and rich color.

Although she lived most of her life in Ghent, Belgium, she visited the small town of Peetz, Colorado, in 1960, and ultimately gifted a series of painted glass windows to the local church there. She later was invited to exhibit at the Denver Art Galleries where she received immediate attention from local Denver art collectors. Gertrude Vanderveer Spratlen was one such patron. She ultimately purchased 13 paintings by Barth, which were gifted to the Springfield Art Museum in 1996. This focus exhibition features all 13 paintings ranging from scenes of Christian iconography to characters of the Italian Commedia dell’arte like Pierrot and Columbine.

Collection Focus: Bradi Barth is organized by Curator of Art Sarah Buhr.

Exhibit Resources

TBA

Related Programs

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  1. Exhibit Support
  2. Exhibit History

The 2023 Exhibition Season is presented by Friends of the Springfield Art Museum, Inc.