19TH & 20TH CENTURY REALISM



Nineteenth & Twentieth Century Realism 150 Years of Works on Paper February 3 - March 19, 2011 Preview Party Thursday, February 3rd 7-9 pm First Friday Public Reception Friday, February 4th 6-9 pm 150 YEARS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF ARTISTS A new exhibit of historic artworks opens at the Raleigh, North Carolina gallery Adam Cave Fine Art featuring works on paper dating back 150 years and including some of the biggest names in Art History: Mary Cassatt, James McNeil Whistler, Paul Cezanne, Thomas Hart Benton, Robert Kipniss, William Barnett and Romare Bearden to name a few. Beginning on February 4th, 2011, over twenty-five works will be on display and for sale spanning the decades since the late 19th Century with styles ranging from the Turn of the Century Impressionism and French Belle Epoque, 1940s American Realism reminiscent of the WPA, as well as more recent contemporary cubist and pop styles. Realism dominates this show of mostly original printmaking full of fashionable ladies, family relationships, work life and leisure time as well as nostalgic images of rural farming and the growth of industry. All of the etchings, drypoints, engravings, wood block prints and lithographs in the exhibit come from private collections and have not been shown publicly before. Although there is a focus on original prints, the show has an immense variety of styles that reflect the changes in art and aesthetics over the 20th Century and might be looked at like a mini Art History survey course. On one end is the delicate, fluid line work in the drypoint of a mother and child, "Looking in the Hand Mirror" by the ex-patriot American impressionist Mary Cassatt. Although influenced by fellow French Impressionists as well as earlier Japanese woodblock prints, Cassatt's focus on women and children was fresh in 1905. Jump forward 80 years and you find the bold, stylistic lithographs of African American artist Romare Bearden, a North Carolina native. One can clearly see the influences of African art as well as cubist collage by the likes of Picasso in Beardens lithograph "Firebirds." The late 19th Century is well represented with works by Whistler, Somm, Cassatt, and Cezanne. Highlights from the 30s and 40s include lithographs by Thomas Hart Benton, Harry Sternberg and Gordon Grant as well as a pin and ink drawing of Rockwell Kent. Later pieces by Romare Bearden, Robert Kipniss and William Barnet demonstrate a revival in printmaking that took place in the 1970s and 80s. All the artwork will be on display throughout the month of February at Adam Cave Fine Art, located on the 2nd floor of an historic, 130 year old building at 115-1/2 East Hargett Street in the heart of downtown Raleigh.