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Linda Sorensen & Daniel Rohlfing |
January 2010 Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery Monthly News, articles, and opinions from the world of California’s heritage art and beyond, and reporting on gallery and museum exhibits, near and far |
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Visit the gallery Fridays, Saturdays, & Sundays, 11:00 AM until 5:00 PM (or other times by prearranged appointment) Celebrating Early California, Western, and American Art 1580 Eastshore Road, PO Box 325, Bodega Bay, CA 94923, 707-875-2911 just around back of the well-reviewed Terrapin Creek Cafe email: Art@BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com | www.BodegaBayHeritageGallery.com |
21 yr old Jimmy Swinnerton, humorously portrayed, The San Francisco Call, Feb. 21, 1896 |
Prescott, Arizona's Phippen Museum hosts a Jimmy Swinnerton & Maynard Dixon Exhibition |
The Smithsonian's Jim Henson's Fantastic World visits his native Mississippi |
Sonoma's Sam Cook (In George Post's footsteps) "the Family Collection" |
Our Neighboring Galleries |
Museum Exhibits: |
Visit our archives page now offering a "clickable" photo index of previous newsletter articles |
On Exhibition at the Gallery ... January 16 - April 16, 2010 Two Shows in one: In our front room gallery Paintings of the Parks compositions created in our most dynamic landscapes from a wide selection of California's landscape artists & in Room 2 of the gallery: works offered for sale by the Meador family, including two from the Disney collection
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21-yr-old Jimmy Swinnerton, humorously portrayed, The San Francisco Call, Feb. 21, 1896 |
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Thirty-six years ago, Jimmy Swinnerton died at the age of 98. He is known and beloved as the dean of the California Desert School. The story is legend of how the young yet highly successful twenty-nine-year-old cartoonist was given a death sentence, a prognosis that his life would end in weeks due to tuberculosis. At the urging of his boss William Randolph Hearst, Jimmy removed himself to the dry California desert in an effort to improve his chances. Jimmy thrived in the desert. It became not only his cure but his passion. He refocused his career, choosing to convey the tenacious green life of the desert in his many paintings to follow. He continued his cartooning, but with a desert slant. He created a new strip, his famed Canyon Kiddies, a comical group of young Navajo children who lived harmoniously within a life harsh but filled beauty of the Southwest. |
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Jimmy's frequent visits to her childhood home where Jimmy would meet with her father John W. Hilton along with other Hilton guests such as Clyde Forsythe, Ed Ainsworth, Robert Rishell, and James Cagney. Lynne Rishell Spickard, daughter of Robert Rishell, recalls Jimmy as a warm grandfatherly presence. But the man who would become the center of California Desert Painting began life as a confident and sophisticated newspaper cartoonist drawing for William Randolph Hearst. In the 1890's, he was already accumulating a following and was becoming a notable socialite personality. Here is a humorous piece from the San Francisco Call in the 1890's, portraying young Jimmy long before his bout with tuberculosis, long before he became enthralled with the desert, and before he became known for his grandfatherly demeanor. |
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"Around the Corridors," SF Call, February 21, 1896 This article is reprinted as it was in 1896. At that time, they used "Jimmy" and "Jimmie" as interchangeable spellings. The caricature to the right accompanied this piece. |
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Jimmie Swinnerton, the caricaturist who draws little bears and big salaries, had a strange experience in Fresno, where he went with the Olympic minstrels to give a burnt-cork exhibition, last week. Incidentally it is well to state that Jimmie has several fads, the most pronounced of which is a longing for loud haberdashery and the stage. When he strikes a live town like Fresno it looks as though the advance agent for a five-ringed circus was on hand to plaster the dead walls with posters and subsidize the press with passes for the entire staff. After the performance Jimmie adorned himself with his plug hat and one of his best arranged vests and sallied forth to mingle with the people. About midnight he got separated from his companions, and while attempting to find his way back to the hotel he suddenly ran across an Italian laborer who had wandered up to Fresno and found himself busted. He greeted the caricaturist with "Pleasa, I lika de nick. Please lenda me de nick." Swinnerton looked at him a moment and evolved the happy idea of having some fun with the fellow. "What can you do my good man, for that sum of money?" "Nota vera much. I cama de San Francis to hunta worka. I staya de dime museum fiva weeka. I gotta soma tattoo. Looka?" He opened his shirt front and displayed a network of tricolored characters tattooed into the skin. A new idea entered Jimmy's head and he, grabbing the hungry man by the arm, took him to a restaurant, where the stranger was given plenty to eat. "Now come with me," said Jimmie, "and I will see that you get plenty of money with which to return to San Francisco." In a few moments Swinnerton burst into the sitting room of the hotel where his friends had assembled and were chattering before retiring. Jimmy waved his hand in a commanding way and asked for silence. "Gentlemen," he began, "we have all suffered in this great world more or less and the needy should not be neglected because they are unfortunate. I have here with me one of the greatest specimens of the tatooeer's art ever exhibited to the American people. Sir, take off your shirt," he said, turning to his companion. The dime museum feature removed that article of clothing and stood bare to the waist before Swinnerton's friends. |
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In a few seconds the boys had filled Jimmie's hat with small change, and as he handed the proceeds to the delighted Italian he said, "Did I give it to them about right?" "Yas," responded the fellow, "I pay for dat tattoo fifta dollar in Chicag sex year ago." Jimmie pulled down his vest. |
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Jimmy Swinnerton's Page on our Site | See Little Jimmy with Betty Boop and the Canyon Kiddies in a Merrie Melodies Cartoon | Back to the Top |
Prescott's Phippen Museum hosts Jimmy Swinnerton & Maynard Dixon Exhibition | ||
Before air conditioners, four lane freeways, and ubiquitous cell phones juggled with mocha lattes, Arizona's varying desert landscapes invigorated well trained and sophisticated San Francisco artists, Jimmy Swinnerton and Maynard Dixon. They used their art schooled skills offering their inspired interpretation of the desert's vastness, beauty and life. It is easy to forget. It is far too easy to forget what the desert artists first saw - an untamed Arizona. The Phippen Museum helps us remember, and it is easy enough to find this museum on a map. But in the context of its place in the world of art, the Phippen Museum is strategically located at the intersection of the past and present. It provides visitors with the experience of the unspoiled Arizona through the eyes of artists of long ago, while supporting artists of the present and educating, encouraging and inspiring artists of the future. The "Greatest Earth on Show" offers over forty masterful artistic scenes of the Arizona that was, as seen through the nearly century old paintings of Jimmy Swinnerton, Maynard Dixon and Gunnar Widforss. |
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The Swinnerton paintings are most impressive. Among them are his most highly auctioned piece, Sunset in the Grand Canyon, and a similar stunning piece entitled Grand Canyon of the Colorado. Also included are his Betakin Ruins, Monument Valley Thunderhead, Humphrey's Peak, Near Sedona and Morning Comes to the Valley. The paintings on exhibit of Maynard Dixon include Tempe Butte and Camel Back Mountain. An impressive painting by Swinnerton and Dixon protege John W. Hilton entitled Canyon Sonata is a quiet nocturne of the Canyon below the stars. Other artists with works in the exhibition include John Gamble's Saguaro Evening, Emil Kosa's Superstition Sunrise, Gunnar Widforss's Grand Canyon of Arizona, Carl Oscar Borg's Needle Rock, Monument Valley, Ray Swanson's Sunset Storm, William Wendt's Mountain Landscape, and works by Ferdinand Bergdorff, Sam Hyde Harris and Marjorie Thomas. |
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Dr. Mark Sublette of Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson and Santa Fe talks about Maynard Dixon. |
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The exhibit extends through February 21. Twenty-four of the works on exhibit are being provided through the courtesy of Gary Fillmore of the Blue Coyote Gallery in Cave Creek, Arizona. You may read and learn more by visiting the Phippen Museum's website at www.PhippenArtMuseum.org. |
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The Phippen Museum and a dazzling Arizona sunset |
George Phippen was a self taught painter and sculptor. Although he died young at age fifty, his life was full. In his honor, a group of artists in 1974 established a memorial fund in George Phippen's name with the goal of building a museum of western art in Prescott. In 1984, the museum opened its doors and started the work of promoting the region's fine art to the rapidly growing Yavipai County region.
Today the museum attracts art enthusiasts near and far. This spring, the museum will break ground on an expansion which will provide much needed exhibition and education space. Donations of art and much needed funds have been offered by a growing and supportive group of boosters who wish the museum to continue and grow in its mission of celebrating the artistic heritage of the Arizona desert. |
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So, your next trip through Arizona, include Prescott on your itinerary and give the Phippen Museum a visit. Also, visit their website, and sign up for their newsletter. It is currently in a print version, but is well worth the read and we encourage you to subscribe. |
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Prescott's Phippen Museum The Blue Coyote Gallery in Cave Creek, AZ | The Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, AZ |
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Jim Henson's Fantastic World visits Jim Henson's native Mississippi | ||
Mississippi seems to be having its day in the sun when it comes to influential animators. |
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traveling Smithsonian exhibition. This same exhibition will soon be visiting California at the Fresno Metropolitan Museum, July 17 - October 10, 2010. |
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station, and Kermit had his debut. Almost instinctively, Jim began using different materials for his puppets, flexible fabrics and foam rubber to allow his creations a range of emotional expressions, using his puppet creations in commercials and then landing an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. He met collaborator Frank Oz in 1963 and the work of the pair continued to evolve. In 1969, the Muppets made their appearance on Sesame Street, and Bert and Ernie anchored a well known puppet family for generations of viewers.
He then took his imaginative team to the big screen, offering a range of Muppet and puppet films, including Fraggle Rock, Farscape, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth directed by Terry Gilliam. |
You Tube video ... Jim Henson's Fantastic World at the Orlando History Center ... 14 minutes | |
Tragically in May of 1990, Jim Henson died at the age of 54 due to a rare streptococcus infection. Honors to his life and work abound, including a museum dedicated to his memory in Leland Mississippi, the Jim Henson Delta Boyhood Exhibit. |
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Jim Henson Delta Boyhood Exhibit | The Mississippi Museum of Art | The Fresno Metropolitan Museum | Our April '09 Jim Henson Article |
Sonma's Watercolorist Sam Cook (In the footsteps of George Post) "The Family Collection" now available |
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Our gallery is pleased to present the Sam Cook Family Collection. Click on any of these thumbnails and visit our Sam Cook Page and link to individual photos of his work. |
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Sam is known for his wet into wet method, and studied with famed watercolorist, George Post. He was also an art teacher, and often taught in tandem with well known Mendocino oil painter E. John Robinson. Sam's technique involved first wetting the whole sheet of watercolor paper, then quickly blending in most of the color areas while wet. The finest details and darkest colors were applied when the paper was almost dry. |
Sam Cook 1917-1999 |
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He exhibited his work through various art associations, including the Marin Watercolor Society, and with his students was one of the founding members of the Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society, along with fellow artists Charlotte Britton and Elsie Nelson. He taught watercolor classes in California and Oregon. He was a member of the California Professional Artists and the Society of Western Artists. The Sonoma Valley Hospital still displays his works. |
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What's showing at Bodega Bay Galleries & Beyond? click on their links and discover the wonder to be found in the galleries of West Sonoma County |
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While in Bodega Bay ... | ||||
IN BODEGA BAY Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery |
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IN BODEGA BAY SMITH & KIRK FINE ART & CUSTOM FRAMING GALLERY Libby Kirk's fused glass, Susan Amalia, encaustic paintings Jean Warren, watercolors, Cynthia Swann, acrylics & Gary Smith's Custom Framing. Also offering works of the late Gail Packer. Conveniently located next to The Ren Brown Collection 1785 A Highway One, PO Box 1116, Bodega Bay, CA 94923 http://www.SmithAndKirk.com | 707-875-2976 |
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IN BODEGA BAY Local Color Gallery |
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IN BODEGA BAY The Ren Brown Collection New Artists, New Acquisitions, New Year through February & Paintings by Robert DeVee http://www.renbrown.com | Back to the Top |
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Liya and Andrew |
And while in Bodega Bay, see paintings by Robert DeVee at |
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And nearby, in Sonoma, Napa & Marin Counties | ||||
IN DUNCANS MILLS Christopher Queen Galleries |
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IN DUNCANS MILLS Quercia Gallery |
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IN Santa Rosa The Annex Galleries specializing in 19th, 20th, and 21st century American and European fine prints http://www.AnnexGalleries.com | Back to the Top |
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IN CALISTOGA the Lee Youngman Gallery |
Paul Youngman "Mustard" |
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IN TOMALES Tomales Fine Art |
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IN FORESTVILLE The Quicksilver Mine Co. |
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IN GRATON Graton Gallery |
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IN BODEGA Bodega Landmark Gallery Collection "The Coast, the Hills and the Vines" A group exhibition celebrating the beauty of the Northcoast 17255 Bodega Highway Bodega, California USA 94922 Phone 707 876 3477 http://www.artbodega.com | Lorenzo@ArtBodega.com | Back to the Top |
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IN VALLEY FORD West County Design |
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IN FREESTONE Boho Gallery 463 Bohemian Hwy, Freestone, CA 95472 Phone 707-874-9792 fine art oils, encaustics, collage, ceramics, and jewelry. You'll find romantic wine country landscapes, ocean vistas, animal portraits, and whimsical narrative collages. Artists Jocelyn Audette Michael-Che Swisher Barbara Harvie barbara@bohogallery.com | http://www.bohogallery.com | Back to the Top |
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brings his rare knowledge and experience to present a tasteful and eclectic array of primarily 20th century artwork. 144 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma, CA 94952 Call 707-781-94952 http://www.calabigallery.com |Back to the Top |
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IN PETALUMA Vintage Bank Antiques Vintage Bank Antiques is located in Historic Downtown Petaluma, corner of Western Avenue and Petaluma Blvd. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Warren Davis and the rest of the team at Vintage Bank Antiques has assembled a spectacular inventory of paintings. From the 18th Century to Contemporary Artists. We have paintings to suit every price point and collector level. If you have a painting for sale, please consider Vintage Bank Antiques. Contact Warren Davis directly at WarrenDavisPaintings@yahoo.com 101 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma, CA 94952, ph: 707.769.3097 http://vintagebankantiques.com | Back to the Top |
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IN PETALUMA Petaluma Arts Council "... to celebrate local artists and their contributions and involve the whole community in appreciation, involvement and recognition of art Shining Brightly: Tapestry Weavers West Celebrates 25 Years January 10 – February 21, 2010 http://www.petalumaartscouncil.org | Back to the Top |
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And, while on the Big Island, visit these friends of our gallery ... | ||||
In Waimea, Big Island, Hawaii Isaacs Art Center visit a superb Museum and Gallery. http://isaacsartcenter.hpa.edu | Back to the Top |
Links to current museum exhibits relevant to Early California Art The Greater Bay Area, Southern California, & Beyond |
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The Greater Bay Area | |||
NEW! in San Francisco's Presidio The Walt Disney Family Museum Film of the Month: January 6-31, 2010 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) 1:00 and 4:00 pm (daily except Tuesdays) tickets available online |
San Francisco de Young Museum "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" through March 28, 2010 "Birth of Impressionism" paintings from Musée d’Orsay opens May 22 |
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San Francisco California Historical Society Think California September 24, 2009- February 5, 2011, an exhibition highlighting the colorful history of California through the institution’s remarkable collection of artwork. |
San Francisco Legion of Honor Very Postmortem: Mummies and Medicine October 31, 2009 — July 4, 2010 |
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San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum “Our Struggle”: Responding to Mein Kampf February 11, 2010 - June 8, 2010 |
Oakland |
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Santa Rosa Sonoma County Museum Adam Wolpert: Sonoma County Landscapes Dec 18, 2010 - Jan 31, 2010 |
Moraga |
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Santa Rosa Charles M. Schultz Museum Happy Birthday, Beethoven! Beginning December 16 , 2009 this exhibition will be available online through the American Beethoven Society! |
Sonoma Sonoma Valley Museum of Art 551 Broadway, Sonoma CA 95476 (707) 939-7862 Dec 12, 2009 - Mar 14, 2010 Life of Making Celebrates the work and workings of three acclaimed artists who explore the boundary between the act of making and the art of living. Jim Melchert, June Schwarcz, and Kay Sekimachi |
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Sonoma Mission San Francisco de Solano Museum featuring the famed watercolor paintings of the California Missions by Christian Jorgensen |
Ukiah Grace Hudson Museum http://www.gracehudsonmuseum.org CURRENT EXHIBIT Through the Viewfinder: Mendocino Landscapes November 21, 2009 – February 7, 2010 |
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Sacramento Crocker Art Museum Permanent Exhibit, plus Treasures, Curiosities, and Secrets: The Crockers and the Gilded Age On view through May 9, 2010 |
Sacramento |
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Monterey Monterey Museum of Art Land & Sea, Paintings and Photographs of Monterey and Beyond January 30-October 24, 2010 MMA Pacific Street |
San Jose San Jose Museum of Art Ansel Adams: Early Works through Sunday, February 28, 2010 |
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Southern California (and Arizona) | |||
Los Angeles Los Angeles Museum of Art Renoir in the 20th Century February 14, 2010–May 9, 2010 American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915 February 28, 2010–May 23, 2010 |
Irvine The Irvine Museum Selections From The Irvine Museum, 2009 including Anna Althea Hills October 6, 2009 to February 13, 2009 |
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Santa Barbara |
Palm Springs |
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San Diego San Diego Museum of Art Russian Empire October 24-January 17, 2010 From Rembrandt's Studio: The Prints of Ferdinand Bol December 5, 2009 through March 7, 2010 |
Santa Monica
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Pasadena Norton Simon Museum The Familiar Face: Portrait Prints by Rembrandt December 04, 2009 - March 22, 2010 Permanent collection,European paintings |
Pasadena The Huntington Library American Art Collection Paintings by John Singer Sargent, Edward Hopper, Robert Henri, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, William Keith, Mary Cassatt, Thomas Hart Benton and many more. |
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Prescott, AZ |
Los Olivos Wilding Museum America's Wilderness in Art: A Growing Collection January 13 through March 21, 2010 coming up, Milford Zornes Exhibition March 31 through June 6 |
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& Beyond | |||
Seattle, WA Seattle Art Museum Everything Under the Sun: Photographs by Imogen Cunningham July 11, 2009–August 29, 2010 |
Portland, OR Portland Art Museum Permanent Collection |
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Washington D.C. The Renwick Gallery Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76, A Documentation Exhibition April 2, 2010 – September 26, 2010 Grand Salon Installation—Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum |
Chicago, IL Art Institute of Chicago Permanent collection : Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle: Always After (The Glass House) January 21–May 31, 2010 Gallery 186 |
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Washington D.C. The National Gallery Permanent collection American Paintings |
Atlanta, GA High Museum of Art Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of the Genius October 6, 2009 through February 21, 2010 |
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Cedar Rapids, IA The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Grant Wood: In Focus is an ongoing permanent collection exhibition. |
Roanoke, VA The Taubman Museum 19th & 20th Century Paintings John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Robert Henri, Childe Hassam & others. Permanent Exhibit |