Exhibition and publication organized by Helen A. Cooper, the Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, with Robin Jaffee Frank, the former Alice and Allan Kaplan Senior Associate Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture; Elisabeth Hodermarsky, the Sutphin Family Senior Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs; and Patricia E. Kane, Friends of American Arts Curator of American Decorative Arts, all Yale University Art Gallery.
Made possible by generous funding from Happy and Bob Doran, B.A. 1955; Carolyn and Gerald Grinstein, B.A. 1954; Mrs. William S. Kilroy, Sr.; Mrs. Frederick R. Mayer; Nancy and Clive Runnells, B.A. 1948; Ellen and Stephen D. Susman, B.A. 1962, for their special support of the audio tour; the Eugénie Prendergast Fund for American Art, given by Jan and Warren Adelson; and the Friends of American Arts at Yale, and supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Additional support for the presentation at the Yale University Art Gallery is provided by Barbara G. and James E. Duffy, B.S. 1951; Laura M. and James A. Duncan, B.A. 1975; Teresa Heinz and the Heinz Family Foundation; Mr. and Mrs. Alexander K. McLanahan, B.A. 1949; Jennifer W. Monsky, B.A. 1981, M.A. 1984, and John Monsky, B.A. 1981; Mr. and Mrs. Oscar L. Tang, B.A. 1960; and the S. Alexander Haverstick II Director's Resource Fund at the Yale University Art Gallery.
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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness:
American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery
An Exhibition Presented in Three Parts
We the People
July 29–December 31, 2011
Defining the Nation
January 31–April 8, 2012
America Rising
May 8–July 8, 2012
This exhibition draws upon the Gallery’s renowned collection of American art to illuminate the diverse and evolving American experience from the time of the settlements of the 17th century to the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. The works in this exhibition—including treasures such as John Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence and Winslow Homer’s Morning Bell—now return to New Haven for a three-part presentation.
The third installment, America Rising, looks at the physical and artistic expansion of the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century. The California gold rush encouraged westward migration, and the develpment of cross-country systems of communication, new canals, and railroads connected cities and facilitated the trade of goods and ideas. The exhibition concludes in America's Gilded Age, a period marked by tremendous wealth, blatant political corruption, and extravagant materialism.
The free audio tour for the exhibition, available at the Gallery’s Information Desk, features commentary by Yale professors, including Jules Prown, Jon Butler, and Robert Farris Thompson; and Gallery curators.
Related Publication:
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery
Price $75; Members $60
View select images:
www.flickr.com/YaleUniversityArtGallery
Image: John Trumbull, The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, 1786–1820. Oil on canvas. Yale University Art Gallery, Trumbull Collection |
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Permanent Collection
Ongoing
The Yale University Art Gallery’s permanent collection includes over 185,000 works. While the Swartwout building undergoes renovation, the entire third floor of the Kahn building is reinstalled, displaying works from the collections of European art, modern and contemporary art, American paintings and sculpture, and American decorative arts. The Gallery’s collections of ancient art and coins and medals have also relocated for the duration of the renovation, with a few key works installed in the Mayer Lobby. The second-floor galleries continue to showcase African and Asian art. Selections from each department are also featured here. Brief informative texts offer a curatorial perspective for each of the works, many of which are currently on view.
Related: eCatalogue
Search more than 119,000 objects from the collection.
Image: Walt Kuhn, Chorus Captain, 1935. Yale University Art Gallery, Purchased with the Katharine Ordway Fund
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