New book reveals depth of gallery's American collection

By Kathleen McGarvey

The Memorial Art Gallery holds an extensive collection of American art. It’s a fact known widely by scholars in the field but one that has eluded the general public. A new book, Seeing America: Painting and Sculpture from the Collection of the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, aims to change that.

Encased in its covers are 73 essays, each devoted to a chosen work from the collection, with accompanying reproductions. Together, the essays offer a unique view of the Memorial Art Gallery holdings and of American culture from the colonial era to the present day.

Unlike many museums, which once spurned American works in favor of European and East-Asian art, the Memorial Art Gallery has advocated exhibiting and acquiring American art since its inception in 1913. The core of its American collection was formed under former director Gertrude Herdle Moore and associate director and curator Isabel Herdle, both of whom worked at the museum for much of the last century. The American collection has continued to grow under current director Grant Holcomb, says Marjorie Searl, chief curator and the book’s editor-in-chief. The volume is dedicated to Holcomb, in celebration of his 20th anniversary as director and to the memory of the Herdles.

Seeing America is the culmination of a project that began in 1999, when the museum received a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, a group working to highlight impressive but not widely known American art collections. Searle initially planned to use the award for work on a conventional museum catalogue. She soon realized, however, that the museum could undertake a more ambitious publication.

“We decided to focus on how artists depicted people, places, and events in American culture,” Searle says. The National Endowment for the Arts was intrigued by this approach and added its support. Searle and her collaborators chose the art featured in the book for what it reveals about America.

“We looked at our American collection,” she explains, “and asked, what are our most compelling stories?” While Jackie by Andy Warhol—a piece that evokes the Kennedy assassination—is included, for example, the museum’s work by painter Mary Cassatt is not. As an expatriate, Searle says, Cassatt did not have “the same kind of story to tell” about American culture.

The essayists include gallery staff members, University faculty, Rochester-area experts, and writers from around the United States and beyond. In selecting contributors, Searle looked for people “who really enjoyed talking about aesthetics, history, philosophy, and cultural studies.” The book reveals unexpected dimensions of the gallery’s collection, such as the virtually unknown Georgia O’Keeffe painting mounted on the back of another O’Keeffe painting the museum owns. Searle hopes readers in turn will share further information they may have. To make it easily accessible, they even have posted the book’s contents on the gallery’s Web site at http://mag.rochester.edu/seeingAmerica.

Work is now beginning on a similar volume that will cover the museum’s European, Asian, African, Mesoamerican, and ancient collections. Searle says she is glad they will have an opportunity to apply to their second book all they learned in producing the first.

Cloth and paperback editions are available for purchase at the gallery’s gift shop.