Mining the Store: American Prints from the Permanent Collection

Title

Mining the Store: American Prints from the Permanent Collection

Date

May 13–August 24, 2014

Description

Like most art museums in the United States, the Palmer Museum of Art can display only a portion of its collection at any given time. The remainder of its holdings is relegated to storerooms. The hiatus is often temporary for paintings and sculpture, many of which find their way back on view with regular reinstallations of the permanent galleries. For works on paper, however, the tenure in storage can seem almost interminable. Because of their sensitivity to light, the museum’s prints, drawings, watercolors, and photographs can spend years, even decades, tucked safely away in darkness. Unless granted temporary parole for a special exhibition, class visit, or scholarly study, they remain out of sight, and, far too frequently, out of mind.

For Mining the Store, the museum has dug deep into the permanent collection to unearth a number of prints by American artists that have not been exhibited in recent years. Viewers might be surprised to find readily recognizable names: John Marin, for example, famed modernist of the Stieglitz circle whose intaglio on view here graced the cover of Carl Zigrosser’s catalogue of the artist’s complete etchings; and Daniel Garber, the popular New Hope artist whose large painting The River Bridge currently hangs in the Hull Gallery. Others, though, remain obscure. How many visitors have elsewhere observed another of Dennis Corrigan’s strange yet smartly rendered Cronaflex prints, or encountered Ellison Hoover’s efforts outside of the comic strips he drew for the newspapers? Renown though, as Mining the Store demonstrates, is not always the full measure of merit. The museum holds gems of all kinds whose common denominator—their paper support—has necessarily kept them hidden from regular review.

Contributor

Palmer Museum of Art and The Pennsylvania State University Libraries, The Pennsylvania State University

Rights

These images are posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted.

Collection Items

Interior with Dress Form
Faced with the grim prospect of attending military school at the height of the Russo-Japanese War, Yasuo Kuniyoshi persuaded his parents to allow him to instead pursue a career as an artist in the United States. After three years at the Los Angeles…

Still Life No. 4
Although often identified as a realist, ostensibly because of his clearly delineated and readily recognizable imagery, it’s important to consider that 150 years ago William Bailey’s work would have related far less to the objective…

Afternoon Train
After graduating with an art degree in 1927 from Rockford College (today Rockford University, located just west of Chicago), Doris Lee went on to further her training at the Kansas City Art Institute and then the California School of Fine Arts, in…

Pennsylvania Highway
Chicago native Aaron Bohrod attended the Art Institute of Chicago for several years before moving to New York to study at the Art Students League. One of his teachers at the league was John Sloan, whose gritty realism had a lifelong influence on his…

Rough Water
Although he trained as a fine artist, studying first at the Cleveland School of Art and then at the Art Students League, Ellison Hoover was best known by the American public for his commercial work. From about 1915 until well into the 1920s, he…

Untitled
Robert Rohm, a sculptor of international renown, was not a prolific printmaker. Indeed, the untitled drypoint on view here may represent the full extent of his efforts in any print medium. It resides at Penn State because Rohm’s work was included…

Daylilies
Peter Milton didn’t develop an interest in art until he started classes at Yale University in 1950. After graduating with a B. F. A., he concentrated on forging a career in painting, supporting himself through a variety of day jobs, including the…

Birdman/Icarus
Although perhaps best known for his sculpture, Leonard Baskin was also widely appreciated for his woodcuts, lithographs, and etchings. No matter the medium, though, throughout his career he remained steadfastly attached to figurative art, a…

Parson's Son
The eccentricity that has marked Dennis Corrigan’s work throughout his career can be traced to his childhood in Lakewood, New Jersey, when he and his schoolmates would stage drawing contests during class to see who could make the others laugh…

Law Court
After earning a B. F. A. from the University of Illinois, Andrew Rush elected to pursue his master’s degree at the University of Iowa, where he served as a graduate teaching assistant with the legendary printmaker Mauricio Lasansky. He received his…
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