Memorial Art Gallery Explained

Memorial Art Gallery
Coordinates:	43.1572°N -77.5881°W
Established:	1913
Location:	500 University Ave Rochester, NY 14607
Collection:	12,000 works of art
Visitors:	238,082 (2017 - 2018)
Director:	Sarah Jesse
Publictransit:	Stop #3 (University Avenue/Prince Street) RTS route 18/19 - 18X/19X University
Website:	http://mag.rochester.edu/

The Memorial Art Gallery is a civic art museum in Rochester, New York. Founded in 1913, it is part of the University of Rochester and occupies the southern half of the University's former Prince Street campus.^[1] It is a focal point of fine arts activity in the region and hosts the biennial Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition and the annual Clothesline Festival.^[2]

History

The Gallery is a memorial to James George Averell, a grandson of Hiram Sibley. After Averell died at age 26, his mother, Emily Sibley Watson, spent several years seeking a way to publicly commemorate him. Meanwhile, Rush Rhees, president of the University of Rochester, had been looking for benefactors to help him add to the University's campus, then located on Prince Street in the City of Rochester. Rhees included a dedicated art gallery on a map of the campus as early as 1905. The Rochester Art Club, which was the focal point for art enthusiasts of the area and which had exhibited and taught at art venues of the time (Reynolds Arcade, the Bevier Memorial Building, and the Powers Block) supported the creation of the gallery.^[3] Since its establishment in 1912, the Gallery has existed as a department of the University with an independent board overseeing its collections and programs. Rush Rhees assembled the initial board of managers, including the Art Club's president, George L. Herdle, in November 1912 and by the eighth of the following October, presided over the Gallery's opening.

The inaugural exhibition, curated by George Herdle, consisted of contemporary American paintings, many of which were for sale, on loan from the artists or their dealers. Since the Gallery had no endowment for acquisitions in its first decades, exhibitions were an opportunity for donors to acquire works and then immediately gift their purchases to the gallery to start its permanent collection. Significant early gifts acquired from exhibitions included: Willard Metcalf's [Golden Carnival],^[4] Joaquín Sorolla's [Oxen on the Beach]^[5] and Paul Dougherty's [Coast of Cornwall, near St. Ives].^[6]

George Herdle organized an ambitious exhibition schedule with multiple exhibitions changing monthly. Significant early exhibitions included the 1914 exhibition at which the original Kodachrome two-color process was introduced,^[7] and in 1919 a controversial solo exhibition by George Bellows.^[8] Annual exhibitions of the Rochester Art Club were also held at the Gallery. In the early years, these changing exhibitions were supplemented by summer loan exhibitions from the private collections of George Eastman, the Sibleys, the Watsons, and other prominent Rochester families.^[9] With Herdle's untimely death in 1922, his daughter and University of Rochester graduate, Gertrude L. Herdle^[10] began what would become a 40-year career as the museum's director. Another daughter, Isabel C. Herdle, served in various curatorial roles beginning in 1932 after schooling at the University of Rochester, with graduate work at Radcliffe College and Paul Sachs' museum studies course at the Fogg, the Courtauld Institute of Art, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Before joining her sister at the Memorial Art Gallery, Isabel Herdle worked for one year at the de Young museum.

Today, the Gallery is supported primarily by its membership, the University of Rochester, and public funds from Monroe County and the New York State Council on the Arts.^[11]

Provenance

• George Eastman's collection of about 60 Old Master, British, Dutch, American, and French Barbizon School paintings,^[12] including Rembrandt's Portrait of a Young Man in an Armchair^[13]
• The Encyclopedia Britannica collection of twentieth-century American art^[14]
• The Charles Rand Penney collection^[15]
• Egyptian and Eastern Mediterranean antiquities from the collection of Herbert Ocumpaugh, a 19th-century businessman
• Near East antiquities from the collection of Frederic Grinnell Morgan of Aurora, NY^[16]
• English and Continental silver from the 17th through 19th centuries from the collection of Ernest Woodward, heir to the Jell-O fortune
• The permanent collection includes more than 500 objects from the collections of four generations of the Sibley and Watson families.^[17]

Collection

The Gallery's permanent collection comprises some 12,000 objects, including works by Monet, Cézanne, Matisse, Homer and Cassatt. Contemporary masters in the collection include Wendell Castle, Albert Paley and Helen Frankenthaler. Works include:

• Blue Prism Painting I by Josiah McElheny, 2014.^[18]
• Breaking the Pose by Jerome Witkin, 1986.^[19]
• Colonel Nathaniel Rochester by John James Audubon, before 1831.^[20]
• Crested Swans by John Scholl, ca. 1910.^[21]
• Harem Scene by Daniel Israel, 1895-1900.^[22]
• Interior of a Gothic Church by Paul Vredeman de Vries, 1595.^[23]
• Interior of a Mosque by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1890-1899.^[24] It is the only painting from Hiram Sibley's original collection still in the Gallery's possession.
• On a French River by Emma Lampert Cooper.^[25]
• Portrait of a Young Man in an Armchair by Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, ca. 1660.
• Seer by Helen Frankenthaler, 1980.^[26]
• Seer Bonnet XVI (Sarah Ann) by Angela Ellsworth, 2010-2011.^[27]
• Statue of Venus Obliterated by Infinity Nets by Yaoyi Kusama, 1998.^[28]
• The Apparition of the Virgin to St. Hyacinth by El Greco, ca. 1605-1610.^[29] It is the first work to be acquired from the Gallery's Marion Stratton Gould endowment.
• The Entombment by Luca Giordano, 1650-1653.^[30]
• The Fable of Fox and Heron by Frans Snyders, ca. 1630-1640.^[31]
• The Sunset Scene by Tiffany Studios, after 1915.^[32]
• The Wanderer by George Grosz, 1943.^[33]
• The West Wind by Thomas Ridgeway Gould.^[34]
• Three Fujins by Hung Liu, 1995.^[35]
• Woman Fixing Her Hair by Elizabeth Catlett.^[36]

Community involvement

Besides hosting exhibitions, classes, and educational programs, the Gallery puts on such major events as the biennial Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition and the annual Clothesline Festival.

• The Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition is a biennial competition for artwork from New York's 27 westernmost counties.^[37] It is judged by guest jurors, which have included Charles E. Burchfield, John Bauer, former director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Thomas Messer, former director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Past winners include Wendell Castle, Albert Paley, Honoré Sharrer, Hans Christensen, Bill Stewart, Graham Marks, and Kathy Calderwood. It grew out of the Rochester Art Club's annual members-only exhibitions which were held in the Gallery starting in 1914, and became a separate event in 1938 under its current name.
• The Clothesline Festival is an open-air exhibition where visitors buy artwork directly from New York state exhibitors and enjoy live entertainment and family activities.^[38] The Gallery reluctantly initiated the Festival as an unjuried show in 1957, and the Festival has consistently proved a crowd-pleaser as well as a means to bolster the Gallery's budget.

See also

• List of university art museums and galleries in New York State

Notes and References

1. Web site: Memorial Art Gallery . 2024-07-23 . www.facilities.rochester.edu.
2. Web site: 68th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition . 2024-07-23 . Memorial Art Gallery . en-US.
3. Think Gift and Site Admirable. Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. April 24, 1912.
4. Web site: Golden Carnival . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester . 27 March 2019.
5. Web site: Oxen on the Beach . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester.
6. Web site: Coast of Cornwall, near St. Ives . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester . 27 March 2019.
7. Book: Harper . Lu . Schauber . Kerry . Searl . Marjorie . The Memorial Art Gallery: 100 Years . 2018 . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochesster . Rochester, NY . 978-0-918098-13-9 . 26.
8. Book: Harper . Lu . Schauber . Kerry . Searl . Marjorie . The Memorial Art Gallery: 100 Years . 2018 . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester . Rochester, NY . 978-0-918098-13-9 . 28.
9. Book: Harper . Lu . Schauber . Kerry . Searl . Marjorie . The Memorial Art Gallery: 100 Years . 2018 . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochesster . Rochester, NY . 978-0-918098-13-9 . 27.
10. Web site: Gertrude Herdle ca. 1923 as new Director of Memorial Art Gallery - 2. nyheritage.nnyln.net. October 5, 2019.
11. Web site: GALLERY FACT SHEET . Public Relations Office . 2010-10-10 . Memorial Art Gallery . . 1 . 2011-05-03.
12. Web site: George Eastman Collection . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester . 23 March 2019.
13. Web site: Memorial Art Gallery Collection-Portrait of a Young Man in an Armchair, 68.98. magart.rochester.edu.
14. Web site: Encyclopedia Britannica Collection . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester . 23 March 2019.
15. Web site: Charles Rand Penney Collection . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester . 23 March 2019.
16. Web site: Frederic Morgan Collection . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester.
17. Web site: Selected Sibley & Watson Family Gifts . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester . 26 March 2019.
18. Web site: MAG Collection - Blue Prism Painting I . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
19. Web site: MAG Collection - Breaking the Pose . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
20. Web site: Portrait of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester . 27 March 2019 . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester.
21. Web site: MAG Collection - Crested Swans . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
22. Web site: MAG Collection - Harem Scene . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
23. Web site: MAG Collection - Interior of a Gothic Church . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
24. Web site: Interior of a Mosque . 27 March 2019 . Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester.
25. Web site: MAG Collection - On a French River . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
26. Web site: MAG Collection - Seer . 2023-10-15 . magart.rochester.edu.
27. Web site: MAG Collection - Seer Bonnet XVI (Sarah Ann) . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
28. Web site: MAG Collection - Statue of Venus Obliterated by Infinity Nets . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
29. Web site: MAG Collection - The Apparition of the Virgin to St. Hyacinth . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
30. Web site: MAG Collection - The Entombment . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
31. Web site: MAG Collection - The Fox and the Heron . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
32. Web site: MAG Collection - Sunset Scene . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
33. Web site: MAG Collection - The Wanderer . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
34. Web site: MAG Collection - The West Wind . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
35. Web site: MAG Collection - Three Fujins . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
36. Web site: MAG Collection - Woman Fixing her Hair . 2023-10-14 . magart.rochester.edu.
37. Web site: EXHIBITION FACT SHEET . Public Relations Office . 2009-08-10 . Memorial Art Gallery . . 2 . 2010-01-02.
38. Web site: Clothesline Art Festival . Memorial Art Gallery . . 2010-01-02.