New Show Highlights Art Museum's Role As Philadelphia's Durable Repository
By Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Museum of Art wants you to see what it's been up to over the past five years.
An exhibit opening Saturday has more than 100 works, from the world's masters to local artists.
There's a Mummer's costume "but it's from England, in the 1820s," notes exhibition organizer Alice Beamesderfer, who then takes us around the corner to where two heavyweights are hanging:
"This painting by Cézanne [The Fishermen's Village at L'Estaque], which became the earliest painting by Cézanne to enter our collection, and this Monet," Path on the Island of Saint Martin, Vetheuil, a lush, summery landscape.
The exhibition is called "First Look: Collecting for Philadelphia." And it's got that name for a reason, says Beamesderfer.
"The museum makes a strong effort to collect work by Philadelphia artists. On one of these walls you can see a charcoal drawing by a Philadelphia artist who passed away last year, named Sidney Goodman. That's a portrait of his mother."
There are photographs, chairs, shoes, and belt buckles -- even the silk dress that makes Matisse's Woman in Blue.
The show opens Saturday and runs through September 8th. For more information go to philamuseum.org.
