Accent On Tampa Bay #213 Sept/Oct 2015 Sept/Oct 2015 | Page 67

TAMPA MUSEUM OF ART

The American Spirit: Painting and
Sculpture from the Santa Barbara
Museum of Art - thru Sept 6
www.tampamuseum.org

Between the 1830s and the end of the First World
War, American art came into its own. From the majestic
Hudson River School paintings of Thomas Cole, John
Kensett, and Albert Bierstadt to the gritty urban realism of Robert Henri and John Sloan, this presentation
draws on the rich holdings of American paintings and
sculptures in the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. This selection of more than 50 paintings and
eight sculptures highlights the maturation of a distinctly
American idiom, one informed by international currents
and engaged with capturing the fluxes of modern life.
Masterpieces of landscape, genre, still-life, and portraiture, punctuated by a selection of sculptures, trace an
evolution in style from an art driven by the mandates of
westward expansion to one animated by experimentation. In both idealized and naturalistically rendered
landscapes, in scenes of everyday life, or meticulously
detailed images of everyday objects, the presentation
also narrates an important chapter in American cultural
history that witnessed the Civil War and its aftermath,
the expansion of national boundaries and the closing of
the western frontier, and the transformations wrought
by the emergence of new technologies at the dawn of
the 20th century.
TMA - 120 Gasparilla Plaza (Polk Street) Tampa,
FL 33602.

THE DALI MUSEUM
Escher at the Dali

thru Jan 3
www.thedali.org
This special exhibition highlights M.C. Escher, a renowned artist, whose visual illusions puzzle and delight
audiences worldwide, and is best known for his “impossible constructions” and use of tessellation. The robust
exhibit features 135 works covering Escher’s entire
artistic career, including an array of his most recogniz-

able works such as “Drawing Hands,” “Reptiles” and
“Waterfall” alongside rarely exhibited early drawings of
family members, panoramas of exotic landscapes and
historic architecture of Italy and Spain, original preparatory sketches, mezzotints and more. “Escher at
the Dali” features prints, drawings, a sculpture, wood
blocks, a lithograph stone and posters drawn by the artist to explain his printing techniques. The exhibit delves
into his exploration of infinity through tessellation, in
which shapes fit together perfectly without overlapping, including an enormous woodcut “Metamorphosis”
(1939-40) which spans 13-1/2 feet.
1 Dali Blvd, St Petersburg, FL 33701. (727) 8233767

Florida CraftArt
Uncommon Couture

thru Oct 24
www.floridacraftart.org
“Uncommon Couture”
crosses the boundary between Art and Fashion for
St. Pete Art and Fashion
Week. Fashion Designer
Lina Teixeira loves turning the everyday mundane in to beautiful forms
of Wearable ART and is
quickly establishing a reputation as an innovative
designer. Her showcase
garments in the exhibition tell the story of one of King Henry’s many doomed
wives and her lady in waiting, all created in surprisingly
beautiful recycled materials. Her ready to wear collection fuses wearable garments with recycled materials
and her ICONIC Collection features hand painted oneof-a-kind corsets. Also included in the exhibition are
fabulous accessories from funky shoes, rubber & metal
brooches, vinyl record purses and colorful recycled tin
bracelets to sophisticated lapidary jewelry.
501 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, FL 33701; 727
821-7391.

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