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Archive for 'History'

Panoramania in Rochester

Panoramania in Rochester In the mid-19th century, Rochester, like much of America, found its entertainment in moving pictures. Not the film-based attractions that would be developed in the early 20th century, but variants of panoramas and dioramas. The first panoramas were developed in England in the late 18th-century, and were housed in multi-story rotunda adorned […]

Rochester’s Ladies’ Art Exchange

In 1879, the same year that the Rochester Art Club was established, another art organization was born: the Ladies’ Art Exchange. Formed to elevate the artistic taste of Rochester and to provide scholarships for art classes for women who looked to artistic endeavors for their livelihood, the Art Exchange served as a marketplace for decorative […]

The Carnegie Building 1911-2015

In the early hours of January 27, 2015, fire broke out in the Carnegie Building on the UR’s historic Prince Street Campus. The building was being renovated at the time, and was largely empty. Structural engineers will look at the building today to see if it can be saved. History of the Carnegie Building, from […]

New on View in the Upstairs Galleries

Despite their small footprint, there are some major additions to the 17th-century and Renaissance galleries. We’ve added a case in each to display works on paper; we’ve also reinstalled most of our collection of European Judaica. An example from each area is shown below, just to whet your appetite. From top to bottom: 1) German […]

Revisiting the 1920 Rochester Homelands Exhibition

Scholar Diana Greenwold recently published an article reviewing a series of “Homelands” exhibitions that took place across the eastern U.S. beginning in Buffalo in 1919. The exhibitions were part of a national response to the “red scares” after World War I—encouraging familiarity with the traditional arts and crafts of the cultures of immigrants to the […]

Archaeologist takes MAG artifacts to RCSD School Number 17.

During his winter break from the Joukowsky Institute at Brown University, archaeology graduate student Alex Smith is visiting five local schools to talk to the 6th grade students. Here he is showing Mrs. Alice Lombardo’s students at the Enrico Fermi School the principles of stratigraphy. Students learned how archaeologists use clues from the surrounding earth […]

The Beauty of Color + Light

Trained as a painter, the artist Louis Comfort Tiffany understood the power of color. Choosing to employ his talents – in art and in business – in the realm of stained glass, Tiffany harnessed beauty, devotional imagery and pure, translucent color in his windows. His technique of plating, or layering, different pieces and different shades […]

Walter Pach – An Unusual Understanding of his Subject

This is the 1st  full length monograph about Walter Pach, a very important person in the development and promotion of modern art in America.  Most of those interested in art know of the “Armory Show”, the 1913 exhibit in an armory in New York City, actually entitled “International Exhibition of Modern Art”.  Many do not […]

The Renaissance Portrait: From Donatello to Bellini

This book is an exhibition catalogue for the exhibit of the same name that was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through March 18, 2012.  As is the case with many MET exhibits, this was a very scholarly and complete study in the genre of portraiture.  There are 5 essays on the theme of portraiture […]

The Mechanical Muse

For the past five years or so, I have wanted to plan a show about ‘the machine.’  Certain pieces in our collection, like Charles Sheeler’s Ballet Mechanique, (figure 1) Louis Lozowick’s Aeroplane, Image Thrown on a Screen, (figure 2) and John Wenrich’s Asphalt Plant, Painted Post, N.Y., (figure 3) have always appealed to me.  These […]