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“From his first publication on the American master, a catalogue
of the paintings, pastels, watercolours and drawings in the Freer
Gallery of Art, David Park Curry has challenged accepted opinions
and opened new avenues for the understanding of Whistler’s
art. . . . As always, a fresh approach is evident.” A maestro of modernism who made calculated use of tradition, James McNeil Whistler (1834–1903) was one of the most easily misinterpreted artists of the later nineteenth century. His emphatically aesthetic paintings, drawings, and prints—made the more inscrutable by his purposefully confusing titles—remain uneasy pieces to the present day. In James McNeil Whistler: Uneasy Pieces, David Park Curry explores the intersection of Whistler's aestheticism with the commercial art world, revealing why his elusive pictures have remained uneasy pieces over time. Among the first artworks to enter the permanent collection of the VMFA, etchings by Whistler came to the museum a century after his birth. Since then, the museum has continued to seek fine examples of Whistler’s art. Now, as the museum undergoes the biggest expansion in its history, a timely review of Whistler’s career reminds us both that theories concerning the display of art in public galleries have changed greatly with time and that exhibition design is an elaborate decision-making process with an immediate impact on the viewer’s perception of the art on display. David Park Curry, former Curator of American Arts at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, is now Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and American Painting and Sculpture at the Baltimore Museum of Art. |
The University of
Virginia Press