Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts explained

Former Name:Springfield Museum of Fine Arts
Location:Quadrangle, Springfield, Massachusetts, United States
Type:Art museum
Visitors:50,000 (2022)

The Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, also called the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, is an art museum on the Quadrangle in Springfield, Massachusetts, which is primarily focused on paintings and works on paper.[1]

History

The museum's construction and collection was established with funds from the estate of Dr. and Mrs. James Philip Gray,[2] and the steel frame Art Deco building was designed by New York-based firm Tilton and Githens.[3] [4] The Springfield Museum of Fine Arts opened in October 1933. The Fine Arts museum is facing the Springfield Science Museum; both buildings were designed together as a unit.[5]

In 1943, the museum held a mural competition to find an artist to paint a mural in the museum's library, with Honoré Sharrer submitting a design; Sante Graziani ultimately won.[6] Graziani painted his winning mural in 1947.

Between 1955 and 2001, the museum had a 16th-century Italian painting by Jacopo Bassano, called "Spring Sowing", in their collection.[7] The piece had been stolen from the Italian embassy in Poland in 1939, and in 1945 the Lucerne Fine Arts Company, based in Switzerland, bought the painting from a Swiss woman who claimed it had been in her family for generations. The Springfield Museum bought the painting from Lucerne though an art dealer in 1955. Although the painting was known to be in Springfield by the 1960s, the difficulty of determining whether it was the original painting delayed any possible repatriation. In the late 1990s, Italy began pursuing repatriation, which the museum agreed to. "Spring Sowing" was returned to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy in June 2001, and the gallery lent the museum another Bassano painting in thanks.

In 2008, the museum was renamed to the Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts following a $4 million donation by Michele and Donald D'Amour, who at the time was the CEO of regional supermarket chain Big Y.[8]

In 2018, the museum entered into a partnership with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, allowing for works to be lent and exhibited between the two more easily.

Exhibits

The museum's Blake Court gallery holds The Historical Monument of the American Republic (1867-1888), a 9 x 13 ft painting by Erastus Salisbury Field, as well as paintings by Hudson River School artists.[9]

On the second floor, the Carol and Noel Leary Gallery of Impressionist Art features a number of French impressionist paintings, including Grainstack by Claude Monet, and pieces by Degas, Gauguin, Pissarro, and Renoir.[10] The museum also has galleries of 18th and 19th-century French art,[11] [12] and 16th and 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art.[13]

The museum has featured temporary exhibitions of pieces by Isabel Bishop, Marc Chagall,[14] Lisa Hoke,[15] Vassily Kandinsky,[16] William Jurian Kaula and Lee Lufkin Kaula,[17] Frances Flora Bond Palmer,[18] Theodore Rousseau,[19] Nelson Stevens, and Ai Weiwei.[20] [21]

References

42.1037°N -72.5863°W

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Kelly . Ray . 2018-04-07 . Boston MFA to exhibit art in Springfield, other museums . 2023-12-02 . masslive . en.
  2. Web site: Dan . 2009-04-30 . D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts (1934) . 2023-12-02 . Historic Buildings of Massachusetts . en-US.
  3. Book: Project, F.W. . Massachusetts: A Guide to Its Places and People . Houghton/Somerset . American guide series . 1973 . 978-1-60354-020-9 . 2024-05-09 . 363.
  4. Web site: 2023-05-01 . Restoring the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts' Historic Front Doors . 2023-12-02 . Springfield Museums . en-US.
  5. Book: Architectural Record . Record and Guide . v. 89-90 . 1941 . 2024-05-09 . 83.
  6. Book: Wolfe . M. Melissa . Subversion and Surrealism in the Art of Honoré Sharrer . Burns . Sarah . Cozzolino . Robert . Lobel . Michael . Zagorin . Adam Desmond . 2017-01-01 . Yale University Press . 978-0-300-22313-2 . 25–27 . en.
  7. News: Associated Press . June 23, 2001 . Going home: Painting heads back to Italy . en . Sun Journal . December 2, 2023.
  8. Web site: Kinney . Jim . 2011-11-06 . Big Y at 75: D'Amour legacy of one of charitable giving . 2023-12-02 . masslive . en.
  9. Web site: Blake Court . 2023-12-02 . Springfield Museums . en-US.
  10. Web site: The Carol and Noel Leary Gallery of Impressionist Art . 2023-12-02 . Springfield Museums . en-US.
  11. Web site: 19th-Century French Gallery . 2023-12-02 . Springfield Museums . en-US.
  12. Web site: The Janee Armstrong Friedmann Gallery of French 18th-Century Art . 2023-12-02 . Springfield Museums . en-US.
  13. Web site: Dutch and Flemish Galleries . 2023-12-02 . Springfield Museums . en-US.
  14. News: Pfarrer . Steve . July 27, 2017 . A look inside Marc Chagall's world at Springfield Museums . Daily Hampshire Gazette . December 2, 2023.
  15. Web site: Cahill . Patricia . 2012-05-11 . 'Love, American Style,' by Lisa Hoke on display at D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield . 2023-12-02 . masslive . en.
  16. Web site: 2016-08-17 . Rare Complete Set Of Kandinsky Prints On View At Springfield Museums . 2023-12-02 . Antiques And The Arts Weekly . en-US.
  17. News: Pfarrer . Steve . August 22, 2018 . Sharing art and life: Springfield exhibit celebrates artistic couple from New England . Daily Hampshire Gazette . December 2, 2023.
  18. Web site: Pfarrer . Steve . August 29, 2019 . Ahead of her time: Exhibit features only woman artist to design for Currier & Ives . Greenfield Recorder.
  19. Book: Allan . Scott . Unruly Nature: The Landscapes of Theodore Rousseau . Kopp . Edouard . Pedersen . Line Clausen . 2016-06-21 . Getty Publications . 978-1-60606-477-1 . 201 . en.
  20. Web site: 'Tradition and dissent': Springfield Museums celebrate the art and legacy of provocateur Ai Weiwei. Armherst Bulletin. H.S. Gere & Sons. 1 December 2023.
  21. Web site: Tuthill. Paul. Special Exhibition Of Works By Renowned Chinese Dissident Artist Opens In Springfield. WAMC. 1 December 2023.