Newark Museum celebrated the reopening of its permanent galleries of modern and contemporary American art on March 9th. The new galleries have been designed to be more open and accessible to visitors and seek to promote a more diverse and inclusive view of American art. The current, long-term exhibition “Seeing America” features more than 300 works from the Museum’s collection including paintings, sculptures, photography, drawing, and decorative arts that illustrate the impact artists have had on shaping American culture and identity.
The Newark Museum will reopen its re-envisioned permanent galleries of modern and contemporary American art on March 9. The culmination of a two-year project supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, the new installations create open and inviting spaces to showcase the Museum’s world-class collections, and promote a more expansive view of American art.
Titled Seeing America, the new modern and contemporary galleries complete the reinstallation of the American collections that began with the addition of Native Artists of North America in 2016. Works by well-known American artists such as Max Weber, Andy Warhol and Helen Frankenthaler are spotlighted alongside contemporary works by living artists, including Willie Cole, Mickalene Thomas and many others. The project encompasses an extensive remodeling of the permanent collection galleries, making the space more open and the art work more accessible to visitors. The reopening will also include the unveiling of several new acquisitions and recently conserved major works; bilingual wall labels in English and Spanish throughout the second floor galleries; a special exhibition by Los Angeles photographer and multimedia artist Matthew Brandt; and the publication of two new illustrated catalogues.
Visitors to the new Seeing America galleries will be able to view works by seminal American artists and discover an expanded and inclusive view of American art. “This is my first experience with the reopening of a major portion of the Museum. I am proud and excited that the renovated galleries will allow for the display of a broad range of works that demonstrate and engage with genuine diversity,” said Linda Harrison, the Museum’s CEO and Director. Among the collection highlights are Georgia O’Keeffe’s Abstraction of 1919 and her celebrated flower paintings; Edward Hopper’s The Sheridan Theatre, depicting a dramatically lit movie theatre populated by solitary figures; and Joseph Stella’s machine-age masterwork, the five-paneled Voice of the City of New York Interpreted.
