PROVO — A new depiction of the American dream as seen through the eyes and talent of artists who date back to the 18th century opens Friday, Feb. 24, at the Brigham Young University Museum of Art.
The museum has redesigned the gallery and rearranged its permanent collection of "150 Years of American Painting," which is an 11-year-old display, museum educator Herman duToit said.
The former display had 69 works, while the new exhibition, "American Dreams," contains 214 works, arranged in three themes. The display will stay up for five years.
"If works of art are always shown in the same context, the same environment, they get stale," says Marian Wardle, curator of American art. "When these works are presented in a new context, a new environment, they take on new meanings. It gives them new life."
While the works were arranged chronologically, they will now demonstrate more social history as the American dream developed and mutated, duToit said.
The exhibition "150 Years of American Painting" was on display in the Arline Harman Gallery on the museum's main level. "American Dreams" expands the exhibition to also include the Russell and Phyllis Marriott, Milton and Gloria Barlow and Robert W. and Amy T. Barker galleries on the museum's lower level. The additional three galleries approximately double the gallery space dedicated to the museum's permanent collection, said museum spokesman Chris Wilson.
The new exhibition shows how American society has excelled in leisure, work, industry and labor, duToit said.
Rather than focusing on the art, the new exhibition will instead depict the ideas that both the artists and public held during their respective periods.
The first section, "The Dream of Eden," includes many landscape paintings, evoking America as a new Eden, when man and nature lived in harmony, Wilson said. The discovery of the New World gave many Europeans the idea that they could return to a land that had been lost to society. The paintings that depict this thought are of unspoiled landscapes and pastoral scenes.
That dream was rekindled in the American West in the mid-1800s when thousands of Americans sought to escape their crowded cities and re-establish their own paradise.
Finally, photographers captured America later in its history as a lost Eden, along with efforts to recapture its former splendor.
The second section, "American Aspirations," depicts the American belief that hard work will achieve success. Comfort, refinement and leisure are depicted in this section as it explores the promise of abundance, Wilson said.
Paintings and portraits depict upper-class society as the fulfillment of that promise, including leisure activities and images of popular entertainers. As leisure and entertainment became more accessible, they began to shape the American way of life, Wilson said, and the artists of the day captured those ideas and activities.
The final section, "Envisioning America," depicts the artists vision of the values of western society, democracy, classical order and Christianity.
The oldest piece by Benjamin West dates back to 1794.
'American Dreams' by the numbers
The display features 214 pieces.
Some pieces are permanently displayed, while more sensitive works, such as prints and photographs, will rotate. At any one time, 115 artworks will be on display.
Of the 115 artworks, 75 will be works that have not been displayed in 150 years.
Of the 214 works in the exhibition, 165 will be works that have not been displayed in 150 years.
"American Dreams" features 86 paintings, 66 prints, 43 photographs, 12 sculptures, four textiles and three mixed-media works.
"American Dreams" features works by 96 different artists.
If you go
What: "American Dreams" exhibit
Where: BYU Museum of Art, BYU Provo campus
When: Opening reception: 7-9 p.m. March 1 in the Lied Gallery.
Museum hours: Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.
Cost: free
Phone: 422-8287