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Orlando Museum of Art Acquisitions Programs

 

The Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) has added three important 19th-century paintings to its permanent collection of American art. The collection shows the many accomplishments of American artists from the Colonial period to the present.    

The OMA's Friends of American Art purchased William Michael Harnett's (1848-1892) Still Life with Pipe, Newspaper & Tobacco Pouch, 1877. Harnett was the most prominent of a number of artists who practiced a style of painting called trompe l'oeil (fool the eye). Harnett chose to paint common, everyday objects but he rendered them with such precision and clarity that they seem to exist just on the other side of the picture frame. 

With funds from anonymous members of Friends of American Art, the OMA recently purchased Seascapes with Sailboats and Dory, n.d., by Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837-1908).  Seascapes with Sailboats and Dory was painted in circa 1890. In this work, the artist created an invigorating sense of light and atmosphere as seen along a dramatic stretch of New England coastline. Bricher was a significant second-generation Hudson River School landscape and marine painter who is considered to be the last of the relevant American Luminists. His work is highly sought after and in great demand because is shows resplendently, and with confident brushwork, how nature looked during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

Recently purchased and placed on long-term loan from the Martin Andersen-Gracia Andersen Foundation, Marsh Landscape, 1855, by Louis Remy Mignot (1831-1870), depicts a pair of pine trees against a sweeping panorama of marsh and mountains. A quiet meditative mood is set by the lovely glow of an evening sky. The painting displays an awe and reverence for nature, which is a key element of much of 19th-century American landscape painting. This new addition is just one example of how Martin Andersen, former editor and publisher for the Orlando Sentinel, and his wife Gracia, are giving back to the community.   

The OMA is inviting its constituants to participate in the following Collecting Circle groups, which will enable patrons to be a driving force in determining what art is acquired for the OMA's permanent collection. This is an opportunity to participate in the community's Museum and leave a legacy for generations to come. 

 

Acquisition Trust

The Acquisition Trust, formed in 1984, has greatly accelerated the OMA's contemporary art collecting activities, adding 33 important paintings, sculptures and photographs by such notable artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Elizabeth Murray, Malcolm Morley and Gregory Crewdson, among others, to the OMA's art collection. 
 
Members meet throughout the year and have the opportunity to travel nationwide to visit with private collectors in their homes, meet with artists in their studios and tour outstanding museum exhibitions. 
 

Friends of American Art

Friends of American Art was formed in 1993 to fund the acquisition of art for the OMA's American Art Collection from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Members of this group have made significant purchases, donations and promised gifts of more than 20 works, among them paintings by Childe Hassam and De Scott Evans. Members meet throughout the year and have the opportunity to travel nationwide to visit with private collectors in their homes, meet with artists in their studios and tour outstanding museum exhibitions. 
 

Friends of Art of the Ancient Americas

Friends of Art of the Ancient Americas' purpose is to purchase and encourage the donation of exceptional art from the ancient Americas for the OMA's permanent collection, and to provide programs to educate its members about the ancient civilizations that created these works. Members of Friends of Art of the Ancient Americas have made significant donations and promised gifts including ceramic works from the Anasazi, Mogollon and Hohokam cultures of the Southwestern United States and a noted large collection of Central Mexican figurines from the Chupicuaro region. 
 

Friends of African Art

A fourth group, Friends of African Art, will be inaugurated in the coming year. This group will purchase and encourage the donation of exemplary African art for the OMA's permanent collection and provide programs to educate its members about the artistic heritage of Africa. 

 


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