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Annunciation
to the Shepherds,
from Book of Hours, about 1430-40, ink, tempera, gold,
and silver on parchment
French, Besançon.
Gift of David and Betty Jones 2008.4 |
This fall the Speed Art Museum will present an exhibition
celebrating a new medieval masterpiece in its collection. A
Book of Prayers: The Medieval Bestseller highlights
a remarkable fifteenth-century Book of Hours generously
donated to the museum by David and Betty Jones in 2008.
Books of Hours were the most popular books of the Middle
Ages. They contain prayers and texts honoring the Virgin
Mary and other saints, and were used by ordinary men and
women to guide their private devotions. The Speed’s
Book of Hours represents late medieval painting at its
best. It includes sixteen beautifully rendered miniatures,
including scenes from the life of Jesus, Mary, and King
David, as well as other religious subjects, and every page
is meticulously decorated with painted flowers or birds
and curling ivy vines accented in gold leaf. An exciting
new computer interactive will allow museum visitors to
explore the Book of Hours in depth in the galleries and
online through the Speed’s website. Other devotional
books from regional collections will also be on view.
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| Cork-n-bottle 2009, archival pigment
print, Sarah Lyon (American, b. 1978) |
What Would the Community Think? is an exhibition that invites
a personal opinion and an exploration of the invisible boundaries
between art and its audience as well as the definition of
community. Artists that are both established and emerging
alike are represented in a variety of media including painting,
photography, and sculpture. The way in which artists have
incorporated or engaged with their community in creating
their art has long been the topic of study for art historians,
writers and critics. The idea of community is vast and constantly
evolving, made evident in this exhibition.
This exhibition includes recent acquisitions from artists
including John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres, whose work focuses
on creating cast sculptures of people in their community.
In using community members as models, the work offers an
interjection and a renewal to sculptural portraiture, a realm
traditionally reserved solely for the historical and famous.
Newly acquired works of Louisville photographer, Sarah Lyon,
will also be on view. Lyon’s photographic subjects
are dependent on chance and action as she captures spontaneous
glimpses into the community that surrounds her. Also included
are works by Vito Acconci, Ghada Amer, Edward Kienholz and
Nancy Kienholz, Larry Clark, Barbara Kruger, and Dinh Q.
Lê. Admission is free.
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Passion
Flowers, 1917, oil on
Canvas,
Charles Caryl Coleman (American, 1840 – 1928).
Gift of Mrs. Hattie Bishop Speed
Frame conservation funded by The Alliance of The Speed
Art Museum, 1999, 1942.351 |
Hattie Bishop Speed founded the Speed Art Museum in 1927 as a memorial to her husband, Louisville businessman and industrialist James Breckinridge Speed. Less well known is her pivotal role in establishing and shaping the museum’s early collection. After her husband’s death in 1912, Mrs. Speed began adding to her husband’s collection
of paintings and sculptures to form what would become the
core of the museum’s holdings. As the museum’s
first director until her death in 1942, she continued to
build the collection, often by inspiring others to donate
art to the fledgling museum. This exhibition tells the
story of how Hattie Bishop Speed created a lasting artistic
legacy for Louisville through the works of art she was
instrumental in acquiring for the museum. Admission is
free. |
Hattie
Bishop Speed: A New Museum for Louisville
September 1, 2009 – March 14, 2010
 This
exhibition of vintage photographs documenting the construction
of architect Arthur Loomis’ building vividly
captures Hattie Bishop Speed’s vision for the new
art museum. Classic in its use of traditional materials,
yet modern in its incorporation of cutting-edge technology,
the creation of the Speed Art Museum was a major event
in the history of Louisville and the Commonwealth of
Kentucky when it opened in 1927.
Mrs.
Speed and Mr. Loomis would undoubtedly be very proud
if they could see what the Speed Art Museum has become
since its founding. With the annual number of visitors
each year surpassing 100,000, and in some years nearly
twice that number, the Speed Museum is dramatically different
than it was in its early years. Mrs. Speed would
be stunned to know that her initial gift of art has grown
to nearly 14,000 works of art. And while they had education
in mind, they never anticipated the museum would provide
core art experiences for over 15,000 K-12 students per
year, countless families, and thousands of adult learners,
in addition to supporting a large program in studio art
and art history at the University that did not even exist
when the museum was founded. And certainly neither Speed
nor Loomis would believe that as many as 5,000 University
of Louisville students walk by the museum on their way
to classes each day.
As
the museum’s prepares for a major expansion and
renovation project, this exhibition celebrates Hattie
Bishop Speed’s vision for the museum and the many
visitors who enjoy it each year.
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Young Man
Playing a Cello, about
1910, oil on canvas,
Jo Koster (Dutch, 1869 – 1944)
Gift of generous donors, by exchange, 2008.21 |
The impact of European colonization in the New World will
be seen in a suite of galleries devoted to art from colonial
America and Kentucky. Art from early Kentucky is
a major growth area for the Speed’s collection and
featured will be new gifts of beautiful Kentucky-made furniture
from the Bob and Norma Noe Collection, as well as exceptional
silver objects on loan from a local private collector.
Moving through the 19th century, galleries will be devoted
to key themes like “Landscape Painting in Europe
and America” and “The Feminine Ideal”. Decorative
arts, including glass, furniture, ceramics, and metalwork
will have its own gallery, while works by Claude Monet,
Paul Cezanne, Constantine Brancusi, and Hans Arp will be
the cornerstones of individual galleries devoted to the
modern art movements of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism,
Expressionism, and Surrealism respectively. However,
while old favorites can be seen in this reinstallation,
visitors will also experience a significant number of artworks
on loan from private collections and several major new
museum acquisitions like Jo Koster’s radiant masterwork,
Young Man Playing the Cello from about 1915.
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