Salon Of European Paintings

At RISD Museum May 6

Exhibition Inaugurates Refurbished Main Gallery

Cuts came in on CD

1c RISD 42…Portrait of a Lady

Artist unknown (Anglo/ Flemish, active early Seventeenth Century), “Portrait of a Lady of the Hampden Family,” circa 1610, oil on canvas, gift of Lucy Truman Aldrich.

2c RISD 60-107 Campidoglio

Attributed to Michele Pace del Campidoglio (Italian, circa 1610–1670), “Still Life with Figure,” circa 1660, oil on canvas, Mary B. Jackson Fund.

 

 

>>revised>>revised>>

MUST RUN 5-4

SALON OF EUROPEAN PAINTINGS AT RISD MUSEUM MAY 6 w/2 cuts

avv/lsb set 4/27 #697841

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — When the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum’s Radeke Building opened in 1926, Eliza Radeke dubbed it “a temple of art” for the community, noting that the central gallery with its soaring ceiling was the optimal location to view the museum’s superior paintings.

Now, more than 80 years later, the Radeke’s Main Gallery will showcase paintings in a newly refurbished gallery that will house a long-term installation from the museum’s distinguished collection of paintings from the Renaissance through the early Nineteenth Century, including several pieces not seen for many years.

“Spring Salon: European Paintings in the Gallery” will be on view from May 6 through to May of 2008. Illuminated by skylights, the exhibition will resemble the deeply stacked galleries of French and British salon exhibitions, with artwork filling the room and the most significant pieces hung at eye level.

“We are elated to welcome visitors back to the Main Gallery and see it returned to its original splendor,” says Hope Alswang, RISD museum director. “And this salon-style permanent installation is the perfect way to highlight all the work we’ve done.”

In this extensive renovation, the gallery’s trademark fabric walls, installed in the 1970s but based on the original damask covering from 1926, have been replaced by a smooth plaster finish, painted a deep blue reminiscent of traditional English picture galleries. The herringbone-patterned wood floors have been refinished to pristine condition with a new luster and sealant for heavy traffic.

The gallery refurbishment was overseen by Ed Wojcik, architect, and Stephen Saiotas, designer, and the work was completed by Shawmut Construction. The redesign of the Main Gallery is a part of a larger renovation and reinstallation project of the entire Radeke Building and linked to the new construction of the Happy and Malcolm Chace Center, due to be completed in the fall of 2008.

Through the years, the Main Gallery has welcomed thousands of visitors to the museum’s most important social events as well as some of its most groundbreaking exhibitions. The exhibitions presented there have ranged from “New Visitions of the Apocalypse,” 1988–89 with cutting-edge work by Ida Applebroog, Cindy Sherman, TODT and others, to memorable presentations of tapestries, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Japanese textile, and Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century American furniture with chairs displayed high on the long walls.

The gallery was also host to many contemporary installations in the 1970s and 1990s and to a huge antique Neapolitan crèche and an exhibition of the Textron Inc gift of more than 2,000 pieces of Gorham silver, including the 740-piece Furber dining service.

The size and shape of the Main Gallery has inspired innovation in exhibition design, such as the furnished rooms built for the exhibition “Furniture of Today,” 1948, and most recently the “Wunderground” installation, fall 2006, with its 16-foot green ogre.

The installation of European paintings was organized by Maureen O’Brien, curator of paining and sculpture. Masterpieces from the Renaissance through the early Nineteenth Century, including many that have not been on view for some time, fill the walls three deep.

The subjects of the paintings vary from still life, wedding feasts, religious imagery and portraiture, including works by Mirabello Cavalori, Francisco Collantes, Matthias Stomer, Bartolomeo Passarotti, Michele Pace di Campidoglio, Joachim Wtewael and Paul Brill.

The museum is at 224 Benefit Street. For information, www.risdmuseum.org or 401-454-6500.